


Thirty-Five Days

by ZWorld



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aussie and Kiwi slang, Australasia, Cruise Ship, Drinking, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Slow Build, South Pacific, Travel, background relationships which won't be tagged, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-10 15:55:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 160,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1161682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZWorld/pseuds/ZWorld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the time Jean Kirstein and his friends decided it would be a good idea. Instead of going to 'schoolies' they’d take a month cruise around Australia and New Zealand. But little does Jean know that he was about to meet a boy, Marco Bott, who would rock his boat like nothing else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Setting Sail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a serious lack of South Pacific/Australasia AUs and I decided to pursue in writing something typically cliche and quirky. If you are from any of the counties in the Australasia region, enjoy the trip and familiarity. If you're from elsewhere in the world, enjoy the culture shock!
> 
> A couple of notes and disclaimers before we begin:  
> I have indeed been on a cruise. Not as long as this one, but pretty similar. I used 2 cruise liners who sails around Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. So I did not make up most of the information (except for the names) about the cruise. (Whether it be decks, ports and etc.) I bent some little facts though, such as activities and a couple of other things that will pop up. But most of it is real and I’m talking from my personal experience. I don't have experience with all the locations they port at (except for a few) so please don’t get too annoyed if you live in any of these regions and I get stuff wrong. But do note that I love researching and travel in general, so I will do my utmost to get everything correct.
> 
> As for drinking age goes, both Australia and New Zealand have a legal age of 18 years old. For sex it’s 16 and for gambling it’s 21 (not that they’re going to in the story, but just fyi)  
> Gay marriage is legal in New Zealand but not in Australia. And both Jean and Marco’s degrees are legit. We live in the southern hemisphere, so its summer during Christmas and early on the year. And it’s really hot too! And since our summer is during the late and early part of the year, our school/college year begins in Feb-March. Most colleges begin late February though.
> 
> Jean's group are all 18-19 years old. (First year of college/ about to begin college)  
> Marco's group are all 19-20 years old. (Second year of college)
> 
> Disclaimer: If you're looking for a quick Jean and Marco get together, this isn't it. This story is about as much travel as it's going to be about Jean and Marco getting together. 
> 
> And that’s all I have for now. So sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise.
> 
> May we all pray this ship does not sink.

 

 

_In which a typical Aussie bloke, Jean Kirstein, falls in love with a typical sheepshagger, Marco Bott._

* * *

When I look back on it now; the time I spent on that damn cruise ship was probably the best summer holiday I've ever had. It wasn’t good just because of the drinks and the food, or even the time I spent lazing in the sun like any other person. No, it was downright awesome only because I met someone special. Ha! It’s quite ironic to me now how much my summer holiday sounds like that movie, Titanic. I mean, the _sex_ was even as steamy as theirs! Maybe even hotter, if I do say so myself! And thankfully it didn’t end like that... thank god and all that is holy.

I’m not much of a sappy romantic. Actually, I’m far, far from it! But, I do know when to admit that I met someone who changed everything within a single month of knowing them. Even now, months later from these events I'm about to share. As I laze around my room instead of studying, I can't help but dream back to the most unforgettable trip of my life...

I guess I should start where it all began. At the end of the school year, just after my group of friends and I graduated high school at the end of November, we decided that instead of going to the ultimate and crazy as ever _schoolies_ that Australians always boasts about, we’d do something crazy on our own.

Now, to all you idiots who aren’t from Australia: Schoolies is this thing that happens at the end of your high school life. Like... right after your exams. It’s a week away from absolutely everything. Normally the school or region (or what the fuck, state?) has a special area where they all gather and drink themselves sick.

Fun? Sure, if you like hangovers. Memorable? Probably not. But apparently a whole load of fun before you come down and realise, _fuck! I’m in university next year!_

Anyway, I remember snorting at the idiotic idea that Armin Arlert, one of my friends, had suggested. He always had some strange fascination about travelling and seeing far off lands and what not (he’s way behind his time, I tell ‘ya. He’s even pursing it by studying history) so this idea wasn’t actually a big surprise.

But what the biggest surprise was that we all agreed to it. God knows how we all somehow gathered the money for this shit is beyond me. Especially since we had upcoming university fees to think about. Oh, and apartment rents. Somehow we all decided that spending a month on the sea and spending more money was a better idea than earning money with a summer job. (Which I kind of regret now, as I basically live off two-minute noodles. It sucks.)

Armin found us a really nice 35 days cruise that went around Australia and down to New Zealand (yay, land of the sheep!) and came back to where it “ports” (thanks for teaching me that word, Armin) back in Sydney. What made this whole thing even better was that it ports Sydney.

Sydney is where I live. You know... the city with that Opera House thing and that giant bridge that everyone seems to rave about? Okay you know what; maybe Finding Nemo would ring a better bell.

So yeah, it was super close and why the hell not? We are young and why not spend some extra money and have a little fun?

So, the day finally came. First of January was our porting day (a Wednesday no less) and we were only meant to check in by like I think noon? But we all took separate cabs and got there early, so we could be some of the first to get on and feast on the glorious food they offered.

I, Jean Kirstein, of course, got dropped off by my painstakingly annoying parents. They couldn’t have been any prouder to have their glorious son take a cruise instead of drink his kidneys to death for a week. Thanks ‘rents. I appreciate it. And they even dropped me off early as hell.

The first to arrive was of course the “trio” as I like to call them. Aka, the three that are joined at the hips but not really.  Kinda reminds me of a centipede. Okay, that was a bad mental image; let’s not talk about the human centipede.

First up is oh-so wonderfully hot, straight from Japan and a step-sister to a little shit I’ll make mention of next, girl who took me to god knows how many highs with my right hand, if ‘ya know what I’m sayin’. Mikasa Ackerman is her name. Shoulder length black hair and always wearing some weird red scarf. There have only been a handful of times I’ve seen it somewhere else other than around her neck.

She’s the step-sister of this shit-stain that’s called Eren Jaeger. Always wearing this shit eating grin and getting agro over something every odd day. To be fair, I do feel bad for the guy. He did pretty badly at school... and you know, always got shit for being so bad at school. We don’t exactly see eye to eye, but he’s tolerable. He was the only thing that made me sceptical about this whole trip. You know, I have to share a room with this guy. I hope to god he grits his teeth a lot quieter doing the deed than when he’s pissing over something in class when he’s in an agro mood.

Lastly we have sweet Armin Arlert. A boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a brain that could fuck you up with just all the knowledge it holds. Needless to say, he was basically the reason I found myself being not only attracted to girls but also to men. I don’t know, he was in my class in the first year of high school and somehow I found myself gobsmacked at how cute (I seriously just used this word even though he hates it. Damn it!) And innocent he was. Boy, I got my words handed to me. Cute indeed... but far from innocent. We had a bit of fling and the rest was history. But I do thank him for being an understanding friend (and the only one, really) after everything. He even helped me hook up with a few other guys throughout school. Ah, what would I do without ya, Armin?

“Been waiting long, Jean?” Armin asked.

I just shook my head, “naah.”

“Aww, is this a re-enactment of your first date?” Eren’s annoyingly pitched voice found its way to my poor, poor ears. I would have just left it, but it was that fucking shit eating grin that made me retort.

“Like you’d know. I see you’ve still never had a girlfriend.”

“Guys, please.” Armin shook his head. Surprisingly enough Mikasa didn’t budge in. I guess maybe they had an agreement that she’d have a proper holiday from babysitting Eren.

“Guys!!!” We heard squeals. It was almost too obvious who that came from.

Meet my other two friends. I call them the “lovey-dovey couple.” Or better yet, “match made in heaven.”

Sasha Braus was an extremely hyper girl who I met once randomly while in line at the tuck shop. She’s a food-a-holic and does almost about everything and anything to get food. Following behind her with two heavy wheelie suitcases; her partner in crime and long term boyfriend, Connie Springer. He’s from America and apparently loved the US Army so much; he shaves his hair. But he’s a really good friend. Probably as loyal as Armin but knows how to chill and have fun. Plus, he throws the best barbies ever! He has a knack for cooking as well, surprisingly enough.

“I can’t wait until we get on! Dibs going to the buffet first! We have to!” Man, she was like a never ending ball of energy and it’s all because of food.

But I had to admit, I was pretty excited and nervous about this whole trip too. A whole month at sea. Porting at Australian cities and later on New Zealand ones. No worries. Free food. Ahh, it was going to be the life!

The building we had entered was not only massive but astoundingly packed with a bunch of people. Okay, in all fairness, the cruise ship was huge and could carry a shit-ton of people, so it made sense that there would already be loads of people waiting. Thank god they had seating and huge windows around the building to give us a slight sneak-peek at the monster of a ship we’d be on for 35 days.

We checked in our bags and about an hour later they allowed the first people to go up. We were luckily in the first stream. I had a backpack on me, as it was suggested by Armin, just in case our luggage didn’t arrive in time before we wanted a change of clothes or something.

We got given these really cool card things that hung from a lanyard. It had a barcode on it with our names and room number. Apparently all you do is get the card’s barcode swiped and all the drinks, gifts and classes were paid for. Of course, we all had a limit on our cards, so we had to make sure we didn’t spend too much on drinks. But it was more than enough to survive luxuriously, especially since we tried to get the cheapest rooms.

Before we even got the chance to climb the stairs to the terminal, we were all stopped as a group to get the fucking cheesiest photo ever taken. Armin ended up buying the photo as a remembrance and let me tell you, we looked fresh and pale, completely unknown to all the adventures we were about to have.

We walked in this terminal that reminded me of when you go onto an airplane except it was totally made out of glass. The view was out of this world! Only then did I realise how fucking huge this boat was. It was massive! Like holy shit. How many people could this thing even carry!? It would take a lot to sink this ship. Oh god, touch wood it doesn’t! The ship was mostly coloured white. It had many smaller windows on the lower side that eventually turned into what looked like awesome balcony rooms. It wasn’t hard to figure out what the ship was called either (I swear, could they have painted the name any bigger?) “Wings of Freedom.” Well that’s cheesy as fuck. It had been plastered at the front of the ship, on the side, in a dark green coloured that was impossible to miss.

We were greeted by these really nice ladies who showed us the way to these really, really well decorated and posh elevators. Seriously, the cruise ship was posh as fuck. The carpets, the white walls, the yellowed lights, the fancy elevators, what more could we even ask for? We were also given booklets and pamphlets and god knows what else, and then asked what deck we were on. 

We were on deck 10; apparently the most comfortable one. It didn’t rock too much and it wasn’t busy at all. It just had rooms and that was it. The hallways were narrow and it took a bit to reach our two rooms. It also had the funniest name. “Trost.” Like, I know Armin gave us an insight as to how all the decks have names, but what the heck does Trost even mean?

Eren, Connie, Armin and I were to share a four bunk-bed cabin on the inner side and right across the small hall with a balcony view (ours don’t even have a fucking window) was Mikasa and Sasha’s twin bed cabin.

We were so excited that we all nearly ran into the small doorway at once, wanting to fight for the beds. I thankfully reached a bottom bunk on the left side of the cabin first. Armin was across from me. That left Connie and Eren on the top bunks. There were loads of drawers between the two bunk beds too for storage and well, whatever you wanted.

“Hope your drunken ass can climb up a ladder, Jaeger,” I laughed, placing my backpack onto my bed and checking out the small draws that separated my bed from Armin’s.

“Ha, you know I can. And if not, you’ll be stuck with my morning breath,” Eren smiled, walking away before I could even reply.

The cabin had a small desk and two really big mirrors and a flat screen TV in the corner of the room by the desk. Behind that wall with the mirrors was a giant closet with hangers and coverings (we were told to bring suits) and a very, very small bathroom. Like I shit you not this bathroom was tiny as. All you do is step inside and rotate a whole 360 to do just about anything. To the north you’re facing the basin and mirror. To the east there’s a small, cosy and dark looking shower; which has the best pressure. To the west was this toilet and back out is to the south. If that made any sense at all. It’s tiny, let’s leave at that.

Let me tell you, the first one to use that toilet was Connie. The screams that came from that first time were both hilarious and terrifying. So, to flush the toilet you have to close the lid. Do you want to know why? Because that motherfucking toilet sucks like nothing else. It made a giant caboosh noise to add to its sucking. I hope it’ll be able to suck all of Eren’s lincoln logs and shit stains. And I’m really begging on the hope part. I get enough of his shit eating smile. I don’t want an actual excuse to see his actual shit.

The booklet told us that if anything is caught in the toilet, the entire water system has to be turned off and whoever was the cause had to give in a huge sum of money. When we all read that part, every single one of us eyed Eren, making sure he knew the deal.

Anyway, it also had a mini fridge with a free water bottle supply. I was kind of wondering at this point if they sold any Powerade or sports drinks. Having our own mini fridge meant a lot of bad things, especially when it comes to drinking inside the room.

We didn’t stay too long in the cabin as it was getting a little stuffy. We all packed our cellphones and wallets away in the safe, since we wouldn’t be able to use them anyway. Reception was pretty bad when out at sea and only when you ported could you get any. Internet was expensive as fuck, as explained by Armin, so we didn’t bother to bring any laptops. Except for Armin (did I just smell hypocrisy?) He wanted to bring something along in case we needed it. Plus, we needed something to keep all the photos we were taking with our cameras.

Needless to say, I looked like a total hottie in my summer get up. Sunnies. Khaki shorts. White t-shirt. Thongs. A cowboy shaped hat to boot. Even my lanyard spelt out “ultimate holiday.”

We went from deck to deck, trying to figure out what was where. We had this girl giving a tour and telling us everything. The only notable decks bellow us were: Deck 5, also known as Mitras. There was a cafe, receptionist and gift stores. Also a mini super market (kind of) that sold daily items... including condoms, because holy damn I forgot to pack some! (Not that I really had that on my mind... but I heard it was common to get busy on longer cruises like these)

Deck 7 (Hermiha) was where the giant theatre place was. The one where it showed plays, comedian shows and movies. There were more bars and also this restaurant that was free but served food in more of a fancy way. I wasn’t too sure. Ah, it also had duty free shops on this floor. Deck 8 (Stohess) had the casino and that was pretty much the only interesting thing there. 

Finally deck 12 (above us and also called Utopia), the place to be. It had two pools and spa pools, and all the amazingly comfy deck chairs. There was an outside bar, the buffet inside at the back of the ship and also the spa treatment area at the front. Oh, it also had an internet cafe at the front of the ship, where the spa area was. Just beyond the cafe was another bar with another stage. The spa area was three decks high for all the oldies in need of some me time, apparently. On the final deck (number 14 also known as Shiganshina) there was a gym and a few other things. Mostly just more space for deck chairs, viewing and a giant movie screen.

We got asked a couple of times if we wanted to plan activities or book special areas. We decided that we’ll leave the first week free and then go ahead and plan activities. We did sign up for a special outdoor deck area on our cabin deck level. It was a secluded area with a mini bar that only allowed a limited number of people (who signed up) to get into. Why did we decide on that specific area and not the unlimited use of sauna rooms? Because the area had padded deck chairs! That’s why.

That’s all the boring basic information about the ship. So, I guess without further ado, we made our way to the buffet, much to Sasha’s eagerness.

I don’t know who was more shocked. Me or Sasha. I was shocked to see how many people were eating already. Sasha was shocked to see all the amount of food. Connie just laughed as he was dragged away to the end of the line. I guess we all knew where he’d be spending all his time this whole holiday long.

We kind of just followed, sanitising our hands and pilling whatever food they offered. And man. Did they offer fucking food! It was unlimited! Desserts, salads, sandwiches, roasted meals and just everything that came to mind. It was literally a buffet of everything. Just too bad we had to pay for drinks. I was tempted to get a fizzy drink, but since both Eren and Connie was buying a beer, I decided why the hell not.

Now... this is the thing about being at the buffet during rush hour: seats. It’s like you have to fight for your life just to find an empty spot. An empty spot that’s also clean is even harder. But luckily there are waiters and waitresses everywhere to clean it for you.

Obviously we realised we found too small of a table when Sasha joined us. Fuck me. Holy damn. Is that three plates of food? Stacked!?

“I bet $10 that Sasha will eventually be having six or seven plates for lunch,” I whispered over to Armin who was sitting next to me. He choked while he was sipping on his vodka RTD.

“Jean! That’s not nice.”

Nice my ass. I wiggled my brows as he left out a giggle. “Why not.”

“I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t pick up weight,” Mikasa added. “Put me down for five plates, by the way.”

“I’ll be the odd ball and bet eight plates,” Eren spoke before biting into a really delicious looking sandwich.

“You guys, please. Don’t do this. You know she’ll only try and make you all lose the bet,” Connie sighed, rubbing the front of his head.

“Then what’s your bet?” I asked, taking a sip of my beer.

“He’s not allowed to bet. Plus I’m sure all the banging will counteract all the plates,” Eren grinned. I nearly choked at that.

“Hope to god it’s not in our room,” I hissed. Come on Connie. You cannot do that to us! You’re on the top bunk for Christ’s sake!

“Naaah, we’ll probably use Mikasa’s room,” Connie laughed, quickly eating away at whatever kind of meat he picked out. Mikasa just sent him a scowl, obviously not happy with the arrangements.

“Okay, okay. Why don’t we also make a bet on Jaeger’s virginity,” I quickly teased, knowing just the right buttons to push.

Eren laughed, “I could say the same thing for you.”

“Let’s not even go there,” Mikasa nearly growled. I could have sworn she was gnarling at her piece of sandwich. Eren just smirked, looking like for once he’s happy with Mikasa’s intervening.

We all finished up pretty quickly and made our way outside to find some deck chairs to kill time on. There were constant announcements indoors stating that at three’oclock they will be having a special rally where everyone had to get their life jackets from their cabins and make their way to some specific location. It sounded like such a bore, but I guess we needed to know how to save our asses if Titanic did end up happening to us. So we had another hour to kill.

Now, let me tell you. You know how I said that apparently kids drink themselves sick while on schoolies? Yeah... no... I guess I was wrong. It wasn’t just at schoolies. The amount of alcohol people were drinking and buying was astounding. Like holy fucking shit. We sat right next to one of the mini bar stands and you should have seen the constant line for people to buy alcoholic drinks. Whether or not they served any non-alcoholic drinks was beyond me... but god damn. The ship hasn’t even sailed and people were already drinking themselves sick. Watching all of them urged me on and I caved and bought myself this alcoholic fruit drink that they were advertising.

Damn this shit was good. I think out of this whole trip, this was the drink I bought the most. I do not have a single regret to admit that I got drunk, numerous times, on fruit juice and tequila. Trust me; if you could try this heaven-like drink, you’d be at it too!

I was happy I wasn’t the only one. Mikasa opted to buy one too, but she decided to go for a plain melon flavour, which looked really good too. She just murmured that she was really thirsty and needed something to sooth something or rather.

That’s how we wasted an hour. Laying in a row of deck chairs, sipping beer and cocktails in the midst of people splashing in the pool and laughing in the background. Of course there was music too.  Really catchy music that made you want to party hard but lying on the chairs made you too lazy for that. Thankfully we weren’t in the sun like those idiots in the pool. I would hate to get toasted on my first day on the ship.

I went down back to our cabin first and decided it would be quicker to take the stairs since the elevators looked extremely busy. By then our luggage had been wheeled into our cabins and took up a whole lot of space. A note was left to suggest pushing the suitcases under the bottom bunks, to save space. It made sense.

Eren came not long after, spouting out, “Connie suggested we grab everyone’s life jackets.”

I nodded, quickly getting up and helping him grab the giant ass life jackets. I was sneaky enough to hand him the one that looked messed up with the string coming undone.

“Thanks, jerk,” he replied sarcastically, walking out and meeting with Mikasa (who, might I add, looked a touch too pale compared to her normal paleness) who had Sasha’s and her’s in hand. 

“It’s okay Eren, I’ll give you mine,” Mikasa reassured. Way to spoil the fun Mikasa. I’m pretty sure Eren’s swimming skills would save him. Maybe his anger management would also chase away any sharks.

 

-

 

It was a mess. That’s what I’d call this life safety thing. Everyone was told to wear it and how to pull it on safely. If you ask me it was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever worn in my life. It was bulky, tight and honestly, who designed this crap?

“They’re not a fashion statement. They’re meant to save lives,” Armin was quick to protest. Damn, must have said that out loud.

It turned out that the life jacket I gave Eren was pretty fucked up. So much that one of the rescue officers had to come fix whatever the hell was wrong with it. Now... this is the part where I tell you I believe in karma. And this is also a time to make mention, she does at some point along this trip (like really early on... you’ll see) make me her bitch because of this stupid life jacket incident. I should have known. I was a pretty unlucky bastard (but not as unlucky as Eren)

Getting out of the hall where our area had to meet was even worse. People were pushing and pulling, eager to get out to the top so we could depart. I lost the groupie at some point but luckily found them again when we all stacked away the life jackets in the cupboard. If we couldn’t get any more childish we raced to the top of Deck 14 (I won of course) which meant I had a really good spot. I eventually gave way though, just so Mikasa could film some of the surrounding scenery and grab onto the railings.

Music was blasting, laughter was in the air. People danced outside in anticipation for the ship to move. To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous at this point. I wasn’t too sure if I could handle a moving boat for 35 days. Of course, I’d have the option to get off. But the last couple of days I’ve had the honour to read horror stories of people who got almost too sick from the motion. I prayed to whatever fucking god that was up there to not to get those symptoms.

The sun was hot (I believe it was like just over 30 degrees Celsius) and I was sweating like I was in a sauna. Thank god for my hat. The added nerves must have made me extremely hot too. But that didn’t stop me as we all excitedly shoved to the beam that surrounded the deck.

Cheers were shouted as we finally set sail. It wasn’t too much of a weird movement, just a slight rock back and forth, but other than that, it was really relaxing. The ship moved surprisingly slow as we were still in the harbour. We passed under that tacky bridge everyone always boasts about (by mere centimetres, I swear!) and the Opera House. So many spectators on land were waving to us as we passed them. It was one hell of an experience! 

Eventually we all grew tiresome and decided to head to our secluded area on our deck. It would be a good way to say goodbye to the city and hello to open waters. On the way there though, things got really, really trippy.

 _Like really trippy_. And it was so trippy that it made Mikasa look oddly dodgy while we walked in the hallways. Like seriously, the ship slightly tilts upwards in the direction its moving and when you’re in the hallways it looks like you’re on an angle. It’s so trippy that you don’t even need to be drunk to feel fucking drunk. That’s how trippy it was.

This is the part where I tell you about how my earlier incident with the life jacket and Eren comes back to bite me. _Damn you fucking karma_.

We finally made it out to the little section with padded deck chairs and a mini bar. And I so happen to have been behind Mikasa. And I’d so happen to also be the one to notice how dodgy and green she looked.

Damn my luck.

“Mikasa, are you alright?” I asked, patting her shoulder. She really looked ill.

Before I even knew it was happening, it happened. She had tried (I think, not exactly too sure) to move away, but hell fucking nope. She ended up chundering what very little she ate at lunch onto my left foot and onto my fucking left sleeve before gagging the rest onto the wooden deck. With people screaming and shouting, you’d think there was something intense happening.

Nope. Just a vomiting girl.

A really, really green looking vomiting girl. That so happened to also get it all over me.

As any sane person, I screamed at first (a manly scream, I swear) and then I felt ultra-guilty. 

“Mikasa! Are you okay!?” Eren had shouted, patting her back and urging her to get everything out onto the deck. Soon one of the workers (bartender, I think?) came along and shoved a bucket into her hands to wretch out whatever was left.

“I’ve asked for someone to get her,” the bartender reassured, telling us how he called up for a medical person.

Thankfully, after a painstakingly slow ride down the elevator and to the medical centre, Mikasa was finally okay. Only Eren, Armin and I dragged along with her, while Sasha and Connie had stayed. It wasn’t even that big of a deal, really. Mikasa just said she was sea sick and was given a whole load of medication to help her through it. Apparently it was totally normal on the first day.

But sadly for me, my shirt was still covered in vomit and as soon as we entered the medical centre, I had ripped it off. Of course they offered to wash it for me, free of charge. Thank god. It was one of my favourite shirts! Amazingly enough, Mikasa’s scarf was dirtied as well. You should have seen her face when she parted ways with it. It was like the scarf was going to go burn in hell and she’d never see it again. I felt sorry for her... _not really_. She did soil my shirt, after all. It’s the least she could have done. You know, part with her treasure. I was also thankful I could also finally wash my foot and thong clean afterwards, because that was fucking disgusting.

“I’ll stay with her for a while,” Eren had spoken softly as we helped her back to her cabin.

“Alright. We’ll check on you guys later,” Armin nodded, giving me a gentle smile. I nodded too and we left them once Mikasa was slid into bed.

“So, I guess with those to being bundled off together, maybe we should buddy up too?” I hinted at Armin as I pulled on a new shirt in our cabin. At this point I did feel just a touch out of sync. It would be safer to travel in pairs and since Armin and I knew each other as well as we did, it would be best.

“Hn. Sounds good,” Armin sent a bright smile towards me. But I couldn’t miss that worried look. Of course he was going to be worried about his dear Mikasa.

We made it back to the secluded deck chair area and were thankful that all the vomit was already washed away and people were back minding their own business.

And that’s basically how we spent rest of the evening. Drinking beer, fruit cocktails and laughing. At some point we went for dinner at the buffet after Sasha’s pestering. The food for dinner was just as good as lunch and holy damn. I don’t ever want to get off this ship! We brought some food down for Mikasa but she refused to eat anything.

“I’m sorry,” she had apologised after drinking some water. She just turned around and went back to sleep. This time Armin had stayed instead.

This time round we went back to deck 12 to buy a couple of drinks and laze around. Amazingly enough, it was already heading for nine’oclock and people were still lively as ever. I couldn’t help but wonder if the drinking ever stopped.

“Wanna see who can drink the fastest? There’s a cheap as deal for tequila shots. Ten of them,” Eren had nudged me in the shoulder. I looked up to see the advertisement. Without Armin or Mikasa here to stop us, I knew it would be fun. A real good challenge.

“Oh, you’re on, Jaeger! You’re paying,” I beamed. I knew five shots was way in my league. Okay, I lied. Maybe they would have been in my league if I wasn’t sipping on fruit cocktails all arvo and evening.

But even so, the fact that I won against shitty Eren Jaeger made me proud. But not that proud when I found myself wrenching it all out in our scary as fuck toilet. And let me tell you, the trip down there was trippy. It made you far drunker than you would believe.

I’m not too sure what else I did that night. The shower was amazingly good though. I just remember being told to get out, since I spent more than enough time in there. Someone also shouted to make sure I washed the walls too. (Like fuck I was going to do the wank with them in the room) But I can tell ‘ya one thing. I’m surprisingly a master at unpacking when drunk. Or at least, I remember that being my last thought of the night.

 

-

 

I don’t remember much of my first full day on the cruise. It was Thursday the 2nd, obviously, and we all had woken up late. Armin was the only one who wasn’t hungover and was nice enough to leave us be until there was just an hour left of breakfast.

Just sayin’, I don’t know if they drug up the food on this ship or what. At home, if I was hungover, I could never, ever eat any food that was shoved up in front of my face. But there I was, shoving a whole bunch of pastries into my mouth like my life depended on it.

They were so fucking good.

They made _Baker’s Delight_ bread taste like shit. It was that good. And I knew I wasn’t the only one. Sasha was scoffing them down too.

Mikasa looked much better but not totally back to normal. She was a little pale, but at least she could fit food into her mouth. We all felt sorry for her and wished her well, and because of her not feeling well, we decided to take it easy.

Did I mention that we don’t have to make our beds? You know... like... we have a personal cabin cleaner? We were all really surprised when we had come back to a spotless cabin. Our beds made, new towels were hung (oh, we get towels and beach towels supplied for us) and our bathroom was even more spotless. We also had this really weird animal shaped figure on the desk, which we found out later that day was made out of all our supplied face clothes. Five star service. God damn I was going to get lazy. (And my freshly washed and folded shirt on my bed. It was the one that Mikasa soiled)

Rest of the day we spent in the sun. Shirtless and board shorts for pants. Thick layers of sun block rubbed into my skin. My hat and sunnies at the ready. Thongs next to my deck chair with a drink. Music in the background. Sounds of splashing kids and the slow side to side rocking of the ship. Life couldn’t get any better. I was in paradise and nothing, I swear to god nothing, not even Eren Jaeger’s snoring and Sasha Braus’ scoffing of food could ruin this moment.

Ahhh. It was good to be eighteen, recently graduated and ready to waste 35 days in the sun.

_Best decision ever._

Except.... What I didn’t like at the end of the day was the hilariously painful sunburn I got. I blame Armin for not waking me up to apply new sunblock. What I hated even more was Eren’s whiny voice at dinner.

“You snored even louder than Connie! It was so fucking funny!” Man, his teasing could get on a guy’s nerves.

“You’re the one to talk, Jaeger,” I groaned, trying not to bend my arms too much. It looks like I’ll need to invest in a mini alarm clock or something. I would hate to go back home looking like a roasted potato.

 

-

 

After sleeping in on our first day at sea, Armin and I made a mutual agreement that we’d wake up earlier the following day, a Friday (January 3rd). We were apparently going to “dock” (again, thanks Armin for the word) at Brisbane (a place I’ve been to all too many times, only because they have the greatest theme parks and because I have another set of boring relatives living in the city) and although I wasn’t so keen on seeing it, Armin was. He was especially excited to drag me along to the museum. Oh lord, someone help me.

We set our alarm for seven in the morning, just so we could get ready, have breakfast and spend a decent day in the city. Of course that alarm only made Eren and Connie stir in their sleep. They slept like the dead. A bomb could go off and they’d still be snoring. Wait! Correction, the ship could sink and they’d still be sleeping.

Armin took a little longer and while I waited I grabbed our cellphones, just so we could text each other in case we got lost while in the city. (And also some other stuff like sun block, wallets and a backpack)

Heading up the stairs to the buffet was already making my mouth water. I was absolutely starving and the memory of how fucking good those heaven-like pastries were was still fresh in my mind. Since we won’t have to rush too much today, I knew I would be stacking my plate full. This time we also opted to just grabbing a free glass of fruit juice.

“Where do you want to go first?” Armin asked.

“Ahh... well... I ain’t got any idea. South Bank would be nice though,” I replied, it was the first thing that came to me.

“Is South Bank close to the museum? You’ll have to show me around! Ah but! I could buy a ma-“

“It’s fine, I’ll lead the way,” I grinned. At least there’s one city on this trip that I’ll be able to lead and show. Armin just nodded and smiled. Those eyes were still slightly glazed over in tiredness from our lack of sleep but damn they were pretty.

As Armin excitedly spoke about all the places he wanted to stop by today, I kind of zoned out and looked around at the other people eating in a hurry to get off as soon as they allowed us to.

And this is the part my dear, dear readers (well, those who have stuck around!) where the story finally begins. 

You know how I said I met someone? Someone who changed everything within just a short month? Well, this is where my eyes fell on them for the first fucking time. 

There I was, slowly chewing on one of the last pieces of a chocolate Danish pastry when suddenly my eyes loomed over a total _beauty_. I have never, ever considered love at first sight (holy damn that is cheesy) and I wasn’t about to. But it was _his_ face. His fucking face tore me to finally believe in that bullcrap.

He was sitting two tables away to my left with three other people (two blokes and a chick) and he looked amazing. Wait no, better than amazing. _Fucking hot_. Short black hair parted in the middle, freckles speckled all over his cheeks, a square jaw, and what it looked like a mighty fine body under that definitely hot pink and navy blue polo shirt. 

I felt the danish pastry fall out of my mouth as I could only do one thing. 

_Stare._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope whoever has made it past chapter one enjoyed it! I would love feedback and if there are any obvious grammatical or spelling mistakes, please feel free to shoot them my way!
> 
> Thank you to thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri (both on tumblr!) for being my beta-readers and motivating me to actually write this thing. I look forward to working with you two through this whole story!
> 
> Extra story tidbit:
> 
> On some cruiseliners decks on the cruises have names (well, the cabin ones do) so I went full out. I ended up naming all the decks that’s open for the public names of the districts in SNK.
> 
> Deck 14- Shinganshina  
> Deck 12- Utopia  
> Deck 11- Karanese  
> Deck 10- Trost  
> Deck 9- Klorva  
> Deck 8- Stohess  
> Deck 7- Hermiha  
> Deck 6- Yalkell  
> Deck 5- Mitras  
> Deck 4- Medi (haha, I ran out of districts, and since this where the medical centre is)  
> Deck 2- Titans (ran out of names, this is a location for young kids hang out)
> 
> Some words:  
> Finding Nemo – you’ve seriously not seen it?  
> Agro – aggressive/ angry  
> Gobsmacked – surprised, astounded  
> Barbie –a bbq  
> Powerade – Sports drinks  
> Thongs – flip flops, jandals, whatever.  
> Sunnies - Sunglasses  
> Chunder (ing) - vomit or to vomit  
> Baker’s Delight – a well known bread and pastry shop in both Australia and New Zealand  
> Arvo - afternoon  
> Beauty – attractive person. "Beaut" is also a good word.
> 
> Aussie – Australian person.  
> Kiwi – New Zealand person. (not used, but will be soon)  
> Sheepshagger – What Aussies call Kiwis.
> 
> If any more pop up along the way, I'll have them at the end of the story!


	2. Brisbane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh!!! I’m so happy that this story got some kudos and hits!!! Thank you so much! It makes me so happy!
> 
> I have been to Brisbane and all the places mentioned in this chapter! Brisbane is the only one, apart from Sydney and the NZ cities they’ll be visiting that I know from the back of my hand. I’ve been to another city in Australia as well (which will come up later) but I don’t remember too much of it, since was pretty young when I went there. 
> 
> Something I didn’t make mention of is when you get off the ship, you first have to wait in line to get a ticket in the main hall/atrium. And then slowly they’ll call the ticket number by groups and only after that will you get to walk down to the deck where the exit is. It’s a long process and slightly annoying, but totally worth it to get your excitement levels pumped! And of course, their security is high as ever. They check your bags to make sure you don’t take anything into wherever you’re going (and it’s the same check when you get back on the ship!)  
> I mostly just have experience with getting off the ship and onto one of the tender boats (those boats that people get on if the ship was ever going to sink) and then sailing towards the awaiting island/ marine area for the tender boats. 
> 
> I tried to make this as touristy but not too touristy as possible. Something that Armin and Jean would likely do... 
> 
> And I kind of want to apologise to both Bertl and Armin. I’m sorry that they’re going to end up being slight plot devices. Woops! I think Bertl’s *plot device* will be a little clearer in the following chapter though!
> 
> So, here we are. Second chapter! It starts off exactly from where the first chapter ended!
> 
> So, to all of those still onboard! Sit back, relax and enjoy the mini-tour of Brisbane.

_Day: 3  
In which Armin drags Jean all over Brisbane central._

* * *

 

Seriously, all I could do at that single moment was _stare_. I must have stared too long because Armin cleared his throat.

“Jean, your pastry fell.”

“Hah?” Was all that came out of my mouth as I tore my eyes away from the beauty. _Oh my god_. “What did you saying?”

“I said, your danish pastry fell onto your lap,” Armin slightly pointed.

“Oh.... Oh! Right,” I finally gave him my full attention. I had forgotten it fell out of my mouth. I just thanked him and flicked my hand to tell him to keep talking. Armin of course carried on like that short scene didn’t even happen.

I ate slowly, my eyes every so often falling back to the guy. Honestly, I didn’t even know why the fuck they did. There was just _something_ about him. He looked just so good and... And then there I was, staring once again. Like full on perving. I was even fucking leaning my chin on the palm of my hand as my elbow rested on the table.

This time, I knew my staring had been caught. _But not by the beauty_. Rather, this really, really lanky looking bloke (who I think saw the sun way, way too much. God he was so tanned) who sat next to him. At first I didn’t realise it until I moved my eyes ever so slightly.

 _Awkward_.

Totally fucking awkward. Our eyes met and he frantically looked elsewhere. I swear... was he sweating...? I had no idea what kind of liquid just ran down his face, but anyway. I still kept staring at him just out of curiosity to see what he’d do. Holy damn he was freaking out because of it. I realised he was getting anxious; trying to not meet my gaze but look everywhere else but at me. It was so fucking funny!

I wasn’t too sure why he was freaking out so much. I couldn’t help but snort lightly at the small scene of a random stranger shitting his pants from someone looking at him. God, I wasn’t even perving at him in the first place!

I watched him bend forward a little bit and suddenly the blonde chick and bloke sitting across from the beauty and lanky bloke turned my way. I quickly looked away, realising he told them. I could feel the rush of blood coming up to my face. Oh god. I shouldn’t have stared like that. Shit!

“And we should also go-” Armin paused. He turned to his right; something must have caught his eye and then looked back at me.

“Okay, so tell me why you were looking in that direction?”

“Uhhh,” I sputtered. Damn, that lanky-ass guy must not have been the only one who noticed.

“Oh come on. Like it wasn’t that obvious you weren’t listening,” Armin accused, pushing his plate to the centre of the table.

“So, who caught your eye?” He kept pestering. Why did it really matter anyway? Was he going to tell me not to bother like all those other times I told him about guys I found hot?

“Come on, out with it,” Armin ordered.

Sighing in defeat, I caved. “The freckles.”

Armin did a quick turn to look at them and almost giggled. Damn it. He was either going to give me shit for it or tell me he was out of my league. With Armin it was always hard to tell. Although he was most of the time an open book, there were other times when (like I said earlier) he thinks about ten lines of conversation ahead and just... yeah... no. One simply does not underestimate Armin Arlert.

“I didn’t know you had a thing for freckles. I thought it was the blond guy.”

Fucking damn you Armin. Here I thought you had a least a little bit of sookiness left in you. For now on you’re in my ‘maybe hate’ list. I should have seen this coming. It was so typical of Armin to tease me when least expecting it.

“I didn’t even see the blond dude,” I admitted. “But, did you see the tall dude freak out?” I chuckled, leaning back against the chair and folding my arms.

“Ever so subtle, Jean,” Armin laughed, taking another peek. I wanted to do the same. I wanted to see that freckled guy again. You would not believe how desperately. I swear I could feel a fucking rope tugging my head to the side just to make sure he was as hot as I first thought. I needed to double check.

“You better look again or else you’ll miss him,” Armin nodded in the direction.

As fast as lightening I looked to the left, noticing they all stood and were walking off. Damn it! But I was thankful; I could finally get a good look at his whole body. He seemed to be averagely built, maybe a bit bigger on his shoulders which matched his square jaw almost _too_ well. But there was definitely something I could not miss, not even from miles away.

Damn, did he ever go into the sun? I swear, those legs were as pale as ever. Even more pale than what Mikasa was before she vomited. Even paler than Armin’s ass. Holy damn. The paleness was such a sharp contrast to his black hair short at the nape of his neck. Hell, you could even see the small black hairs on his legs because of his paleness. I didn’t even bother to look at the others; my eyes were pretty much super glued to him until he was out of sight.

“God...” I breathed under my breath, still staring.

If I had to be completely honest and ultra cheesy, I would say it was love at first sight. Well, for me it was anyway. I was mentally kicking myself for being such a sap for it. Sure, I’m your plain average guy. Well, your plain bisexual guy. I feasted with my eyes on many women and men whenever I could. Being bi only meant I had more options. I guess, thanks to Armin, I had found myself looking at more guys than girls. But never. Never before in my fucking eighteen years of existence have I found such a beauty before. I almost wanted to run after him to ask for his name _Almost wanted to._

I was a slight coward when it came to taking the first move. I swear, only slightly. Don’t you dare think any less of me for it! I’m still a fine stud, got it!? I knew how to flirt and how to be bold once I got into the right groove. I was known for that. I was the flirting master at parties! But I was lamely inexperienced when it came to meeting someone outside of parties and alcohol. Which can bluntly explain why I never had a long lasting relationship. Armin would tell you exactly why, but I wouldn’t give anyone a time of day to talk to him about our fling. He’d only tell you about all the times I fucked it up.

“I’m sure you’ll see him again. Come on, let’s get going! We got exploring to do!” Armin encouraged, reeling me out of my thoughts. I just nodded, gently hanging my backpack onto my sunburnt shoulders, and followed him back towards the area where we could get off the ship.

 

-

 

So, to get off the fucking ship is this really long and utterly fucking pointless ordeal. You gotta’ stand in a line. Go through those scanner things to check your bags, just like the ones they have at airports. Walk through those metal detector things and then finally, right at the end of this long as queue, could you get your barcode scanned and walk down the terminal lane thing. 

First thing we noticed as soon as we walked out of the wharf building was that, holy fucking shit, it was hot. Really, really fucking hot. It only then made sense that the whole cruise ship had air-con. Brizzie’s weather was like a kick in the gut and all I wanted to do was crawl my way back into the cool ship. I wanted to bail out of this damn city and its humidity. But instead I was pulled at my wrist by Armin and headed towards the ferry.

Second thing we noticed was we had to get onto a ferry to get to the city. I don’t know how far we were out of the central city because at this point I was still dying from the heat, and honestly I did not care. But Armin’s eagerness pulled me anyway towards the ticketing booths. 

Third thing was I felt like I was still on that ship. Armin nodded and told me that he too felt it. We fucking felt like we still on the ship. Let that sink in. We were on dry land and yet we still felt like we were fucking moving. Armin had then given me an in depth reasoning to something about motion and god knows what else while we waited in line to get a ferry ticket.

Fourth thing that wasn’t as cool was that we had to pay with extra cash to get any items on shore. Suddenly I was so relieved I brought my bank cards. Bless you Armin. Thank you for being such a nerd as you are and for finding all this shit out for us.

Fifth and sixth was that in the midst of grabbing our cellphones and wallets back in our cabin, I had totally forgotten to pack our free water bottles. I only realised this once we were on the ferry because of reason number six. The ferry was packed to the brim with other tourists and with the heat of the early morning sun; I was dry as a fish out of water. I haven’t really been keeping my eye open as to what kind of people were on the cruise ship but I suddenly realised that there were more sheepshaggers than Aussies on this ferry. How did I know? The fucking accent. No seriously, have you ever even heard a sheepshagger talk? God. You could hear one from miles away! And when you’re suddenly surrounded by them, you have to take a moment to remember that you’re still in Aus and not in Kiwi-Land.

Anyway, that led me to scan the packed ferry, just in case freckled boy had left with the first batch of people. I was disappointed to find not a single freckle in sight or short black hair parted in the middle. I even looked for the anxious lanky bloke. Well, it was no use feeling disappointed, I was surely going to find him again once we were back on the ship.

“What time do we have to be back on the ship?” I asked out of curiosity. I wanted to know how long I had to suffer in the shitty city heat today.

“Five,” Armin replied, checking his cellphone. “Although, let’s get back at four, so we don’t have to get on board with lots of people.”

I hummed a confirmation, realising that it was already heading for nine in the morning and the ferry was off.

The first thing Armin and I did once we got off was find the nearest shopping centre. The ferry got us off at this random wharf area which I knew was pretty close to the main shopping street in Brizzie. So I led the way as we went into the pedestrian only street. 

“I got to text Sasha, she’s going to love all these malls,” Armin had said as we walked down the lane. Of course Mikasa would probably like it too. I had a faint guilty thought that maybe I should buy her a new scarf or something nice but the idea left as quickly as it came. She was the one who soiled my shirt. I didn’t owe her a fucking thing. (Okay, but maybe I still wanted to get her something along the way)

We found the entrance to one of the nearest malls and headed for the first cafe we saw and bought two water bottles each. One was to chug down from the heat and the other for later. The air-con in the malls were refreshing compared to outside and I nearly sobbed at the idea of heading out there again and walking. Dear god, I was suddenly thankful I decided to wear my sneakers instead of thongs. Armin had a whole giant list of places he wanted to see and being his so-called “tour guide” I had to lead him everywhere. Knowing the city as well as I did, I knew that would involve a whole lot of shitty walking in the sun and not enough bussing, since it would be pointless and a waste of money when everything was a few blocks apart. 

“I want to visit the memorial park first. I think it’s called ANZAC Square?” Was Armin’s first request. Of course it had to be a memorial park. Why would it be anything but something totally geeky and history related? I should have known all the places blondie wanted to go to were in the same style as this.

“You owe me for this, you hear me, Arlert?” I had grumbled after we walked in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes (I think it was more than a couple of minutes because we were already half way to the park.)

“Of course. I knew you’d need a favour from me eventually,” Armin had giggled. “I have a pretty good idea what you’d need me for anyway.”

“Ha? What are you saying?”

“Well, I’m just assuming...” Armin wavered, hooking his hair behind his ears. He took a gulp and carried on. “Since I owe you for this, why don’t I try to help you find that freckled guy once we’re back on the cruise ship?”

I snorted at the idea. No way. I could find the boy easily enough. Surely a single freckled boy could be easy enough to find on a ship. I’d need Armin’s favour later on if anything else. Actually, you know what; I didn’t need a favour from him at all... _except_...

“I was hoping to save that favour in case I couldn’t find a lay,” I smirked.

“You’re an ass,” Armin accused. “Plus, I saw the way you looked at him. I know that look, Jean.” Damn, he was trying to ignore my comment. Well, two could play at that.

“Armin, I don’t know what you’re saying. I’ve been in your ass, yeah, but you weren’t anywhere ne-“

“Oh my god! Stop it, Jean! Be serious,” his voice rose pretty high (and was that a blush?) that some people we walked past were giving us a weird look. I just sent them a look to tell them to fuck off. Their heads turned quickly enough.

“I can find him easily. You know me. I’m like a hawk. I’ll see him again in no time.”

“So then what else did you have in mind?” Armin asked, folding his arms. I was about to speak but he interrupted with, “nothing to do with a free screw, please. You know we’ve gone past that. It’s been two years already.”

I sighed. He was always such a spoil sport. What a drag. I thought he could tell when I was teasing him.

“Then, let’s leave that favour for if I need your help when I finally meet him. I don’t know... Just leave it open for then, alright?”

I could have sworn I heard Armin snort. “Alright then. But that’s if you can find him. There are over one-thousand-and-nine-hundred people on the cruise ship and that’s excluding the staff.”

“Armin... I don’t think I’ll miss a hottie like him in a crowd,” I wiggled my eyebrows. Armin just waved his hand, signalling that the conversation was over.

Ideally I wanted to leave the favour for later. Armin knew what right buttons to push and what right words to say. He had a fucking killer brain for Christ’s sake. I would need it for later on when it really counted. But his attitude made me slightly uneasy. Did he really have such little faith in me? Me, Jean Kirstein!? I would find that freckled boy easily enough.

 

-

 

We reached the memorial park quicker than expected, even when we stopped at a few other touristy-looking buildings. Before I even knew it, Armin was pulling his camera out and taking probably a thousand-photos. It was quite funny. Who knew you could be a tourist in your own country? We walked around this giant statue of a man on a horse and then headed in the direction to this weird gazebo (without a roof) thing that reminded me of those places in Greece or whatever. I didn’t take history and I wasn’t even remotely interested in that shit. I was only here for Armin, after all. It was kind of sweet how excited he got about it though.

The thing I hated the most was that I fucking ended up being the camera guy. Armin had nearly begged me to take pictures of him with everything. I guessed it was for his grandfather which he had to leave behind. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that old man and if I remember correctly, he was just as interested in the world of history. It was pretty obviously where Armin got his odd interests from, being that his grandfather raised him since young.

Thank god we didn’t spend too long in the blistering sun. Armin eventually coaxed me towards the bus stop and announced, “next up is Mount Coot-Tha.”

“Agh. Why all the way there?” I groaned.

“Why not! I’ll get really good shots of the city that way. Plus, I even researched bus times before we got off,” he spoke, taking out a bus timetable from his own small backpack. 

Well, I guess I couldn’t argue with that. I would relish the one of two chances today that he’d actually be bussing and not walking. At least the bus would be a hell of a lot cooler than the fucking sun. But I almost cringed when I realised we’d get there just before the hottest part of the day..

 _Noon._ I cringed. Oh dear god.

Since half of you probably don’t know anything about Australian heat, I’ll fill you in. You do not. And I fucking repeat, loud and clear, do not go into the sun at noon. Or you know what, within those two fucking hours. If you want to burn alive, then be my guest. I for one, avoid it at all costs. Knowing that Brizzie is extra humid and extra hot only makes it fucking worse.

“There is a cafe and shit up there, right?”

“Of course! We can have lunch there!” He pulled out another pamphlet. This time he just handed it to me and started flicking the bus timetable to create a fan. Oh, thank heavens for his smart thinking.

I had a look anyway and realised that yes, there was a cafe at the top of the mountain and even a look out. Thank fucking god. Without further ado, I followed Armin’s actions by flicking it like a make shift fan while we waited in the sun for our bus to arrive. And guess what. I still felt like I was on that fucking ship. Damn it.

 

-

 

So, skip forward an hour and a bit bus ride and we were finally on top of a very brown mountain at half to noon. Okay, yeah, another fucking thing about Australia. Because of the heat and lack of rain, we have water restrictions which all equals to brown grass. Dead grass. Grass that cuts you like a knife if you don’t wear proper shoes. That shit even cuts through thongs. Thongs. Trust me, I know from experience! It’s sort of really bad looking, but oh what the hell, it’s fucking Aus. Everyone comes here aware of the awful situation that is summer.

It was just past eleven in the morning and as Armin had a mini photography spaz while we stood at the look out, I got a text from none other than Connie. I was amazed he even sent a text. Apparently they’ve been off the ship for nearly an hour after getting a wakeup call from Sasha. She had told them to get their asses out of bed and that she needed to immediately see these malls Armin spoke of.

“Connie asks if we should meet up somewhere,” I said while Armin shot a million pictures at a minute of the CBD that was smoggy in the distance.

“Hm... Maybe later? We still have to get lunch and then head back down there,” he contemplated.

I sighed, “will just before two o’clock do?”

“Sure! That’s more than en- Oh-my-gosh. They have these binoculars! Jean! Do you have any change!?”

I hurriedly texted Connie the reply and grudgingly took out my wallet. The things I do to please this fucking blondie.

“Check it out, this is so cool,” he exclaimed, pulling me into the binoculars too.

Okay fine, I’ll admit. It was a little cool. Just a little. The binoculars could see really far and past the smogginess that covered the CBD. I’ve never looked through anything like this before and it was surprisingly intriguing.

We did a bit more sightseeing and ended up leaving the viewpoint to walk through some really randomly placed gardens. Of course Armin was more excited than I thought he was going to be and before I knew it, he was shoving the camera into my hands, begging me to take more photos. _That little annoying turd_. I did it anyway, only because I knew he didn’t get the chance to travel often.

“Let’s grab lunch before the next bus. It should be here in half an hour,” Armin guessed, taking a look at the bus timetable that I handed to him. I had to carry it, mind you. God, I was such a gentleman. He really, really did owe me for today!

“Thank god. Thought you’d never ask,” I grumbled.  He just giggled and walked towards the cafe that was on the pamphlet.

We ended up getting a pizza to share and some fizzy drinks since it turned out that the cafe was worth a fucking arm and leg. Holy shit. Do they really expect tourists to pay that much for fucking lunch? God damn. Brizzie, you were an overpriced bitch!

Thankfully the pizza was actually good. Like really good. Even better than the slice I had on the ship yesterday for lunch. Well, I could tell ‘ya one thing. It was better than that greasy shit from the takeaway stores. I only ate a few slices, leaving most of it for Armin. The ship’s motion was still in my system and still feeling it wasn’t making me hungry at all. Or maybe it was the heat. Yeah, I’m going to key it to being Brizzie’s annoyingly hot sun and humidity.

Armin and I made idle talk, not making mention of anything in particular. I was amazed he didn’t bring up the short ordeal with the freckled boy again. Maybe I was a bit of a fool for hoping he would. I kind of wanted to ask him, just to double check that I really did see such a beaut. My heart still sped up at the thought of him and I could feel my face going red all over again.

As fucking if Armin could read my mind, once he took the last sip of his soda he asked, “so where are you going to look first?”

“Hah?”

“You know. Looking for the guy. I suggest we first look at all the busy decks and then-“

“Whoa. Hold up, Armin. Where did that ‘we’ come from?” I had to ask. I told him before that I could find him by myself, didn’t I? I needed his favour later on.

“I know you did. But I refuse to let you do it alone. There are nearly two-thousand people on that ship. If you want to find him quickly, you’ll need my help,” Armin almost smirked. I swear. Was he questioning my hawk-like skills!?

“But I don’t want you to be using up that-“

“This is out of my own goodwill. I’m curious too, you know. I just want to test out for my own personal research how long it will take to find someone.”

Running my fingers through the longer parts of my hair, I gave in. “Fine. If you’ve got nothing better to do.”

Oh well, the more eyes looking, the better. I knew I could trust Armin to help me without any fall backs. It would only meant that I got to see the beaut quicker than if I was looking alone. I swear I could feel my heart beat even faster at the anticipation.

“Perfect, now let’s get going or we’ll miss the bus,” Armin closed off the conversation. Once more I just followed him back into the blistering heat, wondering again why the fuck did I agree to show him this city when I could have stayed on the boat instead.

Ah, now I remember why. Because I so happened to have buddied up with the little blond turd. I snickered. That’s a good one. I quite liked that nickname. _Blond turd._

 

-

 

“Oh-my-gosh-you-guys! Did you guys even see that toy shop!!!” We heard rather than saw Sasha first. Ahhh, still so full of energy even when food wasn’t involved. I wheezed out a laugh when I saw Connie trailing behind her, hands full with bags.

“Where’s Eren and Mikasa?” Armin asked.

“I don’t know. They left us back at that mall down the street,” Sasha pointed. “So did you!?”

“No?” We both said in unison.

“There’s this really cool shop, right over there!” She pointed again. “They sell these really cool action figures! Come on!!!” She grabbed onto Armin, pulling him towards the store’s general location.

“Calm your women, Springer,” I teasingly told him.

“Yeah, yeah. Shut up,” Connie groaned, holding up some of the packages and probably hoping I would take some of them. I just shook my head, giving him what I hoped looked like one of Eren’s shit-eating grins.

“Just hold onto them! Come on! I need to text Eren.” I caved after that, taking one handful of bags. Damn women. What on earth did you even fucking buy? They weighed like a shit ton of bricks!

“So, is that all she’s been doing since you got off the ship?” I made small talk as we trailed behind the other two.

“Damn right. She hasn’t even stopped for a drink,” he grumbled, finally holding out his hand to carry the rest. Finally relieved to get rid of these, I tossed them carelessly into his hands.

“Will they even allow all of this shit on there?”

“I damn well hope so. I ain’t dealing with her once she finds out she can’t.” Ahhh, the life of poor, poor Connie Springer. Must be nice to have such an energetic girlfriend. But hey, it’s not like he’s the same. Sometimes he’s even worse and god damn he pulls the craziest pranks if anything.

We got to the store easily enough and found out Sasha wasn’t kidding. It was a store for adult toys. Holy shit. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. I’m not meaning those kinds of stores, you perves! (Although, I wish it was) I’m meaning action figures. Collectables and- Are those novelty toys!?

I rushed over, finding some prank toys on the shelves. As soon as my eyes found the most realistic looking piece of plastic shit I have seen in my life, I could not help but throw my head back in laughter. Perfect.

I just found a toy for Eren. A perfect toy that would be waiting for him tonight in bed.... Or...

“Connie!” I whispered. His bald head peeked out on the other side of the shelving as he asked, “what?”

“Check this out mate!”

He quickly rushed over and as he did, I held out the package with the really realistic looking piece of shit. His mouth fell open as soon as his eyes landed on it. Perfect.

“So.... Do you feel like doing a little bit of pranking?” I chuckled lowly. Of course. Connie never said no to a good prank. Or a good smoke. Or... you know what, he never said no to anything this good.

“Hell yeah! Eren, right?”

“Damn, you read my mind, Connie boy.”

He eyed the area suspiciously before leaning closer to me.

“So, this is what I got so far-” and so he whispered the rest to me. I couldn’t help the grin that found its way on my face. I could always count on Connie. Oh, loyal and faithful, but annoying, Connie

“Deal. Tomorrow is operation:  Eren shat in his bed,” I agreed.

I quickly went and bought the item just before Eren and Mikasa joined us. Once the others were done looking and after Armin signed up for some weird loyalty online card thing because apparently he could not miss out on the ‘amazing’ stock of historic figures they had in store, we headed outside into the sweltering heat.

“Next up, the museum and South Bank,” Armin chirped, taking a sip of his now warm water. I checked the time and realised it was already heading for two-thirty in the afternoon. We still had a decent amount of time, thankfully. Even though I was on dry land for five and half hours, I still could feel that fucking boat. Damn it!

The walk to the museum was pretty short since it was just across a bridge that went over the Brizzie River. Brizze planned their CBD surprisingly well. You had the pedestrian-only road that had a thousand malls and shops linked to it. It had a bridge nearby it so you could walk over one of the main highways and the Brizzie River that Armin and I had been on in the morning with the ferry. On the other side was the museum and a walkway that allowed you to walk along the river’s edge. Along the way were many patches of trees and grassy areas where you could picnic and laze about. There was also something that was probably the main attraction of Brizzie, which I will get to in a bit. Oh, did I mention there was a giant Ferris wheel too?

I just ended up being the camera man for Armin again. I swear I was like his personal tour guide and photographer all day long. If my legs did not cave in on me today from all the walking, then my arms definitely would from his heavy as fuck camera.

After spending too long in that boring old as museum of ‘Queensland,’ and after Armin bought some souvenirs, we finally headed to the one place I’ve been wanting to go to all day!

South Bank. Ahhh, glorious, man-made South Bank. For those who have never been to Brizzie or never even heard of what South Bank is, then you’re missing out on one fucking awesome sight.

South Bank is literally a man-made beach. Right smack dab in the centre of the city (well, kind of.... my geography wasn’t always the best, apparently) with a man-made salty pool and holy damn, there were some _fine_ looking people in their bathers and bikinis.

We walked along the river’s edge until we were welcomed to a swift breeze of salt and sunblock. The cries of children splashing in the heat of summer. The palm trees that covered the circumference of the salty, beach-like pool. The soft, but hot, looking sand that people lazed on with their towels. This was the part of Brizzie that I craved.

“Let’s get some ice cream and hang around,” Connie suggested. Probably ‘cause he wanted to get rid of all those bags in his hands. We all nodded and walked onwards to the line of cafes and restaurants that were built right behind the pool and fake sandy shore. A line of palm trees separated the two sides, as well as a few white ibises.

We found the nearest ice cream shop (which so happened to be a Kiwi-Land’s shop! Damn it! Can’t get away from any of those damn sheepshaggers!) We order our ice creams and headed straight to the hot people and mini beach. We found a good spot on the grass and under a tree. It had probably the best view to perve at people and get a good look at the city.

Ahhhhh. Now this was how to end a day full of painstakingly walking and being dragged by a blond turd. I still snickered at that new nickname.

“Thanks for showing me around today, Jean!” Armin beamed, licking around his green looking ice cream.

“Thanks for making me walk my ass off,” I countered. He just giggled in reply. He was used to my crass replies, it was in good fun after all.

“It’s it not like you’ll need your ass, Jean. Since you’re not getting any,” Eren interjected. I just threw him the finger. “Fuck off, Jaeger.”

“Mikasa, why did we ever agree to bring these two along?” Armin questioned.

“Who knows,” she snorted, earning a laugh from both Connie and Sasha.

 

-

 

Now, I may have stated that to get off the fucking boat was a process. Well. Wait till you want to climb back on that fucking ship. Same process except this time that line was fucking massive. There were no groups, no assortment. You just had to stand in the line and wait for your turn to walk through the security beams. Thank god we were in the air-conned wharf or else I would have blown my shit.

We only finally got back onto the ship and on a normal deck by four-thirty, which was really pushing our luck because the last people they were taking in was at five. Thank god we made it in time!

Once we got into our cabin, we were greeted with a spick and span room. Everything was in place. Well, except for Connie’s stupid mess on the desk. Our cabin steward decided to even leave us a rabbit-looking figure this time. We had only met the guy once before this day; I think his name was Gunther or something. I felt sorry for the guy. He had to clean a cabin room full of horny teenagers. I'm sure we were his worst nightmare.

We didn’t do much while we waited for the boat to depart again. This time we made sure to text whoever we wanted and used as much internet as we could via our smartphones. Armin had told us the next time we would see land was only on Monday 6th.  Holy fuck, that’s two days too many without any reception and internet.

Surprisingly enough it felt good to be back on a ship. It got too trippy on land (and feeling the motion) so it was good to finally be back on something where moving was supposed to happen.

We made a mutual agreement to get into our bathers and head on out to Deck 12. We took turns in the bathroom of course. Like hell was I going to show those guys my amazingly horse- sized donger.

Armin and Mikasa went ahead to take photos and film our departure while the rest of us headed towards the buffet, absolutely starving. Sasha had said that she did not give a crap about the departure, she needed food and I couldn’t help but agree. I was so hungry I could eat a horse! It was such a shame though. She only ended up eating three plates. Damn! I was still crossing my fingers for five plates!

The most disappointing thing was that there was not a single freckled boy or lanky bloke in sight. Even after I walked through the whole buffet hall, there was not a single freckle in sight. I just guessed he was probably outside taking photos as I had originally seen him with a camera strapped around his neck that morning.

The evening rolled by pretty quickly as Connie and I took a dip in an already fucking crowded swimming pool with a bunch of idiotically drunk people. Seriously, why were they swimming while drunk!? Where the hell was the security guards to tell them to get out!? Was that actually dangerous!? We ended up opting out of the pool before we drowned because of their stupidity.

I laid on the deck chair in the setting sun and gentle rocking, as my mind easily found its way back to the freckled boy from this morning. There was just something about him. Something that screamed I needed to see him again. Never has anyone caught my attention as much as he did. Well, except for Armin and Mikasa, that is. But maybe he was extra special and it only made me more eager to find him again. I didn’t have the slightest idea what I would say to him or what I would even do to get his attention. I just wanted to see him again, that was all.

It couldn’t be that hard. It’s like what Armin said. There was only one-thousand-and-something people on this ship. I had two full days to find him. It would give me more than enough time to finally find him. With Armin opting to help out, we would find him in no time. Hopefully by then, Armin would still be keen to lend me that favour for if I fuck it up.

I knew little to nothing about the freckled boy. I knew he was no doubt going to be straight and that it would ruin every fucking chance I had with him. I just couldn’t help this small tugging feeling telling me to try anyway. Maybe I could gay him up. Yeah. I could totally do that! If Armin could do that to me, I could easily do it to him. I don’t care if he was a straight guy at this point. Once I used my masterful flirting skills on him he’d be begging to get in my pants. I couldn’t help but snicker as my mind travelled further. Oh... the things I would do to him...

At some point we all moved back into our cabins and decided to call it an early night as the sun (thankfully it didn’t burn me like yesterday) had kicked every living piece of energy out of us. Even Sasha was falling asleep on the deck chairs outside. It was only just past ten for God’s sake! She’s always been the last one to sleep!

“Remember our deal, Connie,” I murmured as I finally climbed into a freshly made bed. Ahhh, those sheets were so heavenly. For once a bed felt heavenly against my still very red shoulders, and aching legs and arms. Damn you blond turd. I was about to tell him as much until I realised he was already fast asleep in his bed.

“Totally man,” Connie yawned. “Just wake me up, alright?”

I grunted as a reply, turning around and yawning.

It was peaceful for only a second before Eren spoke.

“Guys...?” And a pause. “What deal?”

I don’t know what had annoyed him the most after that night. The fact that both Connie and I didn’t reply to him or the fact that he regrets falling asleep without knowing what it was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the lovely thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for being my beta-readers and for motivating me to write this!!! (Please look them up on Tumblr too!)
> 
> I seem to love giving Jean a big ego. Sure, he knows how to do the talk, but in my opinion, he can’t do the walk. (Like, does anyone remember how he blushed and sputtered to Mikasa the first time he saw her? HA! So... you’re probably going to see him stumbling once he finally meets Marco!)
> 
> I’m sorry if the chapter ended up a bit boring! I wanted to at least do a bit more exploring with the friendship between Armin and Jean since Armin will come in handy... kinda? Don’t worry! Armin will get his happy ending too! As for Marco being tanned... I know he’s slightly a different shade than Jean in the anime (like a touch darker) but just for the story, I made him super untanned like Annie and Reiner are. It’ll make sense later!
> 
> And I’m sorry it’s taking a while for Marco and Jean to finally meet! I promise they’ll meet soon! 
> 
> If there are any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes my beta-readers and I missed, please feel free to send them my way!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Beaut (y) – attractive  
> Lanky – thin and tall  
> Perve (ing/iness) – ogling, staring, lustful stare (Both a noun and a verb)  
> Sook (iness/y) – soft, tame, inoffensive  
> Brisbane – a city in the state called Queensland. There is a giant man-made beach in the central part of the city. Their transport is hella good too.  
> Brizzie – nickname for Brisbane. There is also “Brisvegas”  
> Bail out – depart, usually angrily.  
> Sheepshagger – Kiwi – New Zealander.  
> Bathers - swimwear  
> Donger – penis. (Doodle is also a word used for penis)
> 
> Ah... I would assume everyone else would know any other slang that popped up.


	3. Stalking to Port Douglas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more, thank you so much for the kudos, bookmarks and hits!!! It makes me extremely happy that there are people who are willing to read this!!!
> 
> This time, I don’t have much to say other than:  
> Jean’s stalker mode is at 100%  
> Bertl’s confidence is down to 10%  
> Poor Bertl!
> 
> This is quite an eventful and long chapter. It was hard to find a cutting spot to be honest. I was thinking of cutting it just before they port, but decided to carry on and start the next chapter with something far more important. (Actually, I just wanted to dedicate the next chapter to the two main boys~)  
> Sadly I’ve never been to Port Douglas, so hopefully I do it justice! I’ve done some extensive research on all the places they’re porting at, so again, I hope all of it pays off!
> 
> (Slight disclaimer: I know that Hanji’s gender is not stated anywhere in the manga (but is portrayed as a female in the anime) but for the sake of the story, they will be a female. Choosing Mike to be part of their group of friends was also a tough decision. But since they’re only minor characters, I thought that maybe Moblit would enjoy his time without Hanji while they're on a cruise)
> 
> Alright! Let’s get the boat moving! Sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise!

 

_Day 4-6  
In which Jean turns on his stalker skills and finally gets somewhere. _

_And snorkels at the Great Barrier Reef._

* * *

_  
_

I had set my cellphone’s alarm clock early enough (and on vibrate) so that the shit-stain, Eren, would be in deep sleep when it went off. Not that we’d have any problems of waking him up or anything since he can sleep through almost anything and everything. After a long as sleep, I felt pretty refreshed and ready to get the day started.

I quickly hopped out and pulled on a simple tank top and some board shorts, not that it really mattered. There was some weird agreement we came to that sleeping in boxers or underwear would be okay in our cabin since even though it had air con, it still got fucking hot during the night.

I tried to be as quiet as I could when I stood on Armin’s bed so I didn’t wake up his sorry ass. But unfortunately he did stir when I tried shaking Connie awake on the top bunk.

“Whaaa?” Armin yawned and gave a big stretch. I almost. Like fucking _almost_ thought that little double chin was cute. Damn. “What’s happening?” He mumbled.

“Shh,” I hushed him, giving him one of my annoyed scowls to warn him that he better keep quiet. Connie eventually woke up when I pulled his feet down from his top bunk. It amazingly did the trick which amused me almost too much. Well, I guess to wake up an idiot you need to do something idiotic.

He rushed to pulled on some clothes too while I pulled out the realistic looking piece of shit from my backpack. The single thought of what it’d do to a drowsy Eren almost made me laugh on the spot. This was going to be classic!

“Are... Are you guys going to pull a prank?” Armin asked, dressing himself too. Neither Connie or I answered, for fear that Eren might hear something (not that he really would) in his sleep or something

“Just do what you have to do, Connie,” I called, grabbing a glass of water from the bathroom before he went in.

“What are you guys even doing?” Armin asked again.

I shot him a look, one telling him that it’d be best if he did not know. It was probably safer to be oblivious, knowing Eren and his reactions. He just released a sigh and gathered some things for the day.

I tried to wait patiently for Connie to take his shit but I was getting a little irritated. How long did it take to fucking shit!? Did he need to relax his ass first or something?

And then. Suddenly it happened. It was as if it came in like a tidal wave. It hit both Armin and I so fucking hard that we nearly gagged. Even the memory of it is enough to make me vomit. Our hands flew to our noses, trying to block out the horrible fucking stench of shit. Let me tell you, it took Connie three fucking flushes to get it down. Holy shit Connie!

Good work, Connie. Fucking well done for taking the nastiest smelling shit ever.

“Ah, finally! Do you know how hard it was to hold that puppy in all night?”

This time Armin did gag. “You guys are just... oh-my-gosh. Whatever you have planned, I don’t want any part of it.”

I was still holding my nose, trying so hard to not let go and laugh my ass off. The fucking measures we went just to make this as believable as possible for the shithead Eren was amazing!

“Good luck and goodbye. Don’t call me until this stinking smell it gone!” He hissed and slammed the door shut. Poor, poor Armin. At least he woke up before Eren went agro.

Connie and I made quick work then. Thankfully Eren was lying on his back and with his legs spread far apart. Since he slept like a rock we could take off his already tangled sheet and ever so gently pour water onto his crotch. Hey, we had to embarrass the living shit out of him. If the fake shit didn’t work, at least pissing his pants would!

Holding my breath and pouring the water at the same time was so fucking hard. _Seriously_. I was already about to blow my top off from laughter! Connie got the realistic looking piece of shit, which might I add was actually fucking slimy and squishy, ready and placed it in between Eren’s legs.

After throwing the sheet over Eren again, we both jumped off my bed and tried to land with a huge ‘thud’ on the floor. I quickly stepped into my thongs, knowing we’d have to bolt out of the room as soon as he activated agro mode. Trying to hold our chuckles, we nodded in agreement when we saw Eren stir.

“Pawph! Eren! That fucking smells!” Connie taunted, making sure to be extra loud.

“What the fuck did you do, Jaeger? Shit your pants?” I joined in. This time Eren really did stir.

It was so fucking funny though. This whole prank was just so fucking classic! You could see the exact moment he noticed the smell. The exact moment he realised his grundies were wet.

_Oh. Shit._

He sat up in a matter of seconds, his face full of shock. “No!” Eren snapped, throwing the sheet off of his crotch quickly.

The laughs that came out of our mouths when he stared in shock at the piece of shit between his legs was the loudest I’ve laughed out so far on this ship. His face was priceless! An award winning, “oh shit.” It totally won over all his fucking shit-eating grins! Seriously, I would kill to see the look of shock on his face more often! Holy damn!

Just as fast as he realised he must have shit in his pants he also realised that it was fake. Then, as if the look came from the fucking devil himself, he looked our way.

“You fucking dickheads!” He hissed every word to our faces. I swear to god I felt some spit on my face! Holy shit! He was so fucking mad!

May I repeat the words from earlier? _Holy. Fucking. Shit._ That face. I have never seen his fucking face look _that_ mad before.

“You guys are going to die!” He threatened, jumping off the bed. Connie and I screamed, rushing towards the door, trying to open it as fast as we could.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!!!” He screamed. This time he reached the highest notes I have ever heard him shout from that shit-hole mouth of his. It even became violent as he threw the piece of rubbery fake turd at us, earning a few screams on our part. Those weren’t ordinary screams, hell no! They were screams of fucking fear. Holy shit! This guy was fucking mad. No, fucking enraged is more like it!

Once we finally pulled the door open, (oh thank fucking god we got it open) we raced out into the hallway and screamed for our lives, wait no, for our fucking safety and ran down the hall.

Of course Connie, the fucking dipshit, had to trip over his own pair of thongs, making me tumble over him and do a forward roll on the carpeted hallway.

“When I get my fucking hands on you two-!” Eren’s furious voice reached us from down the hall. He was fucking stomping his feet! Fucking stomping! He sounded like an elephant!!! Wait no, he looked like a bull!

We somehow made it back to our feet and rushed up the stairs to Deck 12. At this point Eren was racing behind us. I swear, I fucking swear you could see steam coming from his nose and ears. Holy shit!

We pulled the doors open, racing outside and ran as fast as we could to the other side. By now we were earning looks from people around us, not that I really cared. I was more worried about my fucking safety!

Eren was still screaming threats, chasing after us until suddenly his voice was gone. Connie and I stopped immediately just before the doors that lead to the indoor buffet.

That’s when shit hit the fucking deck.

“Sir! Calm down! Please! Put some clothes on and mind your language!” The security guard had caught him and all Eren did was pause and look gobsmacked. He totally forgot. He actually mother of god forgot that he was still in his fucking boxers!

The funniest of all was that the boxers were wet! Ha! Enjoy the humiliation, shit-stain! Connie and I tried so hard not to laugh. The stares people were giving him was worth a million fucking dollars! I swear, if we did laugh out loud, it would have been the end of us.

That look he gave us. The fucking glare. The look that we’re sure satan had given him was possibly the greatest thing ever. But what we really did not think through all the way was what the fuck he was going to do with us afterwards.

Connie and I just gulped, hoping it wasn’t going to be anything bad that ended with broken bones.  I already had an earful from the _blond turd_ about how the medical centre was a rip off.

So, that’s how I started Saturday (January the 4th) aka, day number one of finding the _freckled boy_.

 

-

 

Connie and I found Mikasa and Sasha eating away in the buffet after the short scene outside and so we decided to join them. But before that, I went to grab some of those heavenly good pastries I had the previous morning. At that single moment I suddenly thought of the freckled boy.

My eyes became like a hawk instantly as I scanned the whole buffet area and was only left disappointed when again, not a single freckle in sight was around. I tried not to let the disappointment get to me since I had all of today (and tomorrow) to look for him. It couldn’t be that hard, right? Armin would be helping too, so we would find him in no time.

When I reached the other three I noticed that Armin had joined them and was picking lightly at his eggs. When I sat down next to Connie he finally lifted his head.

“Glad to see you made it out alive, Jean,” he teased. I just snorted.

“He’s no match for me.”

“Are you shitting me? He’s going to get us back, seriously!” Connie interrupted as he chewed on his breakfast that he picked out. Thanks Connie. I really did not want to see fucking half-digested food. Yuck.

“Where is Eren?” Mikasa asked.

“The security guard dragged him somewhere,” I shrugged, scoffing down today’s special Danish pastry. It was a raspberry jam one and holy fuck it was so good. I could have a million of these, they were that good.

“I’m going to find him,” she stood abruptly, her sister-instincts kicking in no less. I was wondering how fast it would take her to react to that.

“Try to calm him down,” Connie called after her.

“And make sure you talk him out of chopping our dongers off,” I added quickly. Sasha laughed at that.

“What did you guys even do to him?” I swear. Connie and Sasha were so alike. Didn’t either of them have fucking table manners? You’d think their obsession over food would mean good table manners. How did their ’rents live with it?

“Wet his grundies and placed a fake piece of shit between his legs,” I explained, taking another bite.

“Don’t forget you stank up our cabin. You should have left an apology letter for Gunther,” Armin added.

“Who’s Gunther?” She asked. This time she thankfully had her mouth foodless.

“Our cabin steward,” Connie blurted, waving his hand around. “I’m sure he’ll survive. It’s not the worst one I’ve pushed out.”

Armin scowled. “Connie! We’re eating!” I laughed at Armin’s disgust.

“I’d hate to smell your worst,” I laughed, finding this whole conversation all too amusing. It wasn’t every day we spoke about shit while eating breakfast and by the looks of the faces Armin was pulling, he wasn’t too excited.

“Hey! At least mine aren’t like Eren's!” Connie tried to defend himself.

“And thank god yours isn’t! Jaeger’s shitty lincoln logs are the worst and-” But before I got could even finish the sentence Armin waved his hand in front of me.

“No more, please!” The look in his eyes told me I shouldn’t continue and I almost felt a little guilty. Knowing that he was going to help me look for the freckled boy today (which he was doing on his own accord) I decided to leave it. Armin better had been grateful.

A comfortable silence, minus Sasha and Connie’s scoffing of food, fell on us and we ate in peace. I couldn’t help as my eyes travelled around the buffet area, searching and actually hoping that the freckled boy would show up in one of the seats. But there wasn’t a single sight of him or his friends.

“Should we start from Deck 5 and work our way up?” Armin asked. Damn, could he actually read my fucking mind or was I just that much of an open book to him? I furrowed my brows anyway, taking a thoughtful bite before replying, “sure.”

“If we can’t find him then we’ll look again later. He’s got to be here somewhere.”

“Who are you looking for?” Connie asked. Armin raised his eyebrows and silently questioned if it was okay. I just shrugged, not really bothered. Connie wouldn’t really care that much. As long as Eren didn’t find out, I would be totally fine with everyone else knowing.

“Just this guy who I think caught his attention,” Armin explained.

“What? Really? Was he that hot?” Ah, Sasha knew me almost too well.

“A total beaut,” I smirked. Just the thought of him got my blood pumping. I couldn’t wait any longer to begin the search. I leaned back against the backrest cushioning, folding my arms and thinking back to yesterday morning.

“He had freckles,” Armin’s voice broke my train of thought.

“Really? Didn’t think you were into freckles, Jean,” Connie teased, nudging his elbow into my ribs. Damn that fucker! I thought he’d be sensible about this!

“I know, right! I was so surprised. I thought it was going to be the blond one who sat at the same table as him.”

“Whoa! And Jean didn’t even go up to him?” Connie sounded gobsmacked. What the hell man!

“No. I think he was too busy creaming his pants.” The fucking smug look Armin held was what annoyed me the most. That motherfucking blond turd. He just knew all the right words, didn’t he?

“You wankers! I thought you’d be more supportive of this,” I complained.

“Oh we are,” Connie laughed, patting my shoulder. “It’s just amazing you didn’t go running up to him like you normally do with guys at parties.”

“Shut up...” I growled, rrunning my hand through the longer part of my hair. It’s different when you’re sober and hit by the most good-looking beaut. He didn’t look like any guys I ever saw at parties. Those were different and normally already drunk from pre-drinks. They were easier to flirt to.

“What, have you gotten that soft after not getting laid for so long?” Connie teased. Armin giggled at that and Sasha broke into a fierce howl. Damn you fucking Connie!

“No way, man. He was fucking special. An absolute beaut,” I tried to explain. All I got in reply was fits of laughter. So what if I was out of practice? What if I haven’t gotten into bed with anyone within the last six months? No one seemed to be keeping a track record on Eren, who might I add is still a fucking virgin! (Or, at least I think he was)

“Alright, alright. We’ll keep an eye out for a bloke with freckles. What do ya’ reckon, Sash?” Holy shit Connie said something right this time!

“He had short black hair too. It’s parted in the middle,” I quickly explained, giving him more details about the freckled boy. Hey, I didn’t care at this point! The more looking for him, the better! Not that I expected Connie and Sasha to really go looking for him. But it was just in case they do run into him.

“What, like a 90s haircut?” Sasha giggled. “What a catch!”

“Shut up. I’m telling you, he’s a hottie!” Seriously. Once they laid their eyes on him, I’m sure as fucking hell that even Connie would turn gay for him. He was that good looking.

“Alright. Well, we’re going to spend the rest of the day up here on deck 12. They’re having an awesome party up here tonight and we’re starting it early after dinner,” Connie excused himself and Sasha.

My face fell quickly to Armin and he just sent me an oddly cheerful smile.

“Shall we begin?”

 

-

 

Disappointed. That’s exactly how I fucking felt after walking the entire ship with Armin. Absolutely mother fucking disappointed. There was not a single freckled boy in sight. Not even the fucking lanky bloke! That’s what had made me so mad because maybe I should have ran after him when they had left the buffet hall the previous morning. What if I couldn’t find him again? What if there really were too many people on this ship?

The only good things that came out of searching the whole ship was being able to avoid Eren. I had a feeling that he wouldn’t have been too happy to see me whenever we saw each other again. So, searching the whole ship with Armin was a good way to avoid him.

We did however run into some really, really good looking people. Like holy fucking shit. Like I had said before, I didn’t pay attention to who was on this ship until I was looking out for the freckled boy. But since we were now looking at people’s faces, it came to a surprise that there were some really hot people on-board that could be so easily fuckable.

At one point Armin and I were walking along one of the higher decks, that just had cabin rooms on it much like ours, when suddenly we bumped into this tall, blond man who held a posture like he had something shoved up his ass. His face screamed something familiar and I could have sworn I’ve seen his face before in a movie or something. I hated to admit it, but he was so fucking hot. Even Armin was blown away. His cheeks has gone bright pink and he almost looked like a deer about to be hit with bright headlights.

His stuttering apology told me exactly what he thought of the man and I almost wanted to full out fucking laugh. How ironic. We were looking for the hottie I saw and yet we ran into one that blew Armin off his own rocket. So much that he couldn’t even think straight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like that except for when I was drilling his ass once when we were drunk. I couldn’t help but let the smirk fall onto my face once the tall blond man apologised and left. After seeing the perving gaze Armin held on the man’s back, I knew that Armin had set his eyes on a possible lay and holiday-fling. I was sure to tease him, just a little, about it. Nevertheless, I wished him all the luck with promise to look out for the blond man as well so he could make proper introductions next time.

We ended our search around noon and decided to call it quits. My legs were still killing me from all the fucking walking I was forced into doing the previous day, and all I wanted to do was sleep it off. So, we headed to the secluded area with the padded deck chairs on our cabin deck, Trost.

It was only then when I was able to relieve some stress. One of the freckled boy’s blonde friends was laying on one of the chairs in her bikini. She had a book shoved up her face so she didn’t see me staring at her. I had to confirm it was her, so I sneaked a little closer to her. I nearly fucking celebrated when my suspicions was correct. Hell fucking yeah! One step closer! One fucking point to me, Jean Kirstein! It was so grand to know that Armin and I were not dreaming about seeing the mysterious group and the freckled hottie! Honestly, I was beginning to think that we did!

Armin and I bought some fruit cocktails, you know, those really good ones I had on the first day on the cruise (seriously, they were so fucking good) and decided to lay one deck chair away from her.

At some point at least one of the freckled boy’s friends would have to come and get her. Won’t lie, I was crossing my fingers that it’d be him! If not, she had to leave at some point and when she did, I was going to fucking follow her like a stalker. I was not going empty handed today. No way in fucking hell, especially not after trekking the entire ship!

So, that’s how Armin and I spent our afternoon. Drinking fruit cocktails, laying in the sun, listening to the soft music that played at the mini-bar, and waiting for this chick to move or something.

I had checked my watch at around five in the afternoon when I realised Armin was snoring lightly. I was almost tempted to fall asleep too. The rocking motion of the ship and the alcohol in the cocktails was settling almost too nicely in my stomach. But then I heard a murmur.

I tilted my head to the right and noticed a tall figure standing by the blonde chick’s deck chair. I quickly shoved my sunglasses into my hair and was only disappointed to realise that it was the lanky bloke.

The fucking awkward lanky bloke. Why. Why fucking god!? Why not the freckled boy!? Why the fucking awkward lanky one!?

He immediately noticed my scowl and glare, and I swear the sweat started pouring almost instantly. He seemed so confused and unsure of himself. He even turned to look behind him (I’m guessing he thought I was staring at something beyond him) and turned back with a frown on his face.

Looking everywhere but my eyes, he finally leaned down to say something to the blonde chick. I quickly turned my head towards Armin, not wanting to be caught again, in case he told her like last time.

I heard the deck chair scraping against the polished wooden deck and assumed that she got off the chair. Before I knew it, feet were walking whilst the bartender told them to have a good evening.

I jumped to my feet as fast I could and shook Armin awake. He didn’t even have time to question me as I grabbed hold of his tiny wrist and heaved him up and out of the door.

Walking as fast as I could to catch up to the two ahead in the long hallway, Armin asked frantically, “what is going on?”

“They’re on the move,” I whispered. I felt Armin peek over my shoulder and almost giggled.

“It’s that really tall guy again,” he stated the obvious. “No shit. I wish it was the freckled guy,” was my quick reply.

We probably spoke too loudly because the tall one had paused. Quickly as possible, I ran towards the nearest exit towards a small lobby with the elevators and earned a loud yelp from Armin as I pulled him along.

“Jean!” He hissed, but I didn’t care at all. Instead I peeked down the hallway, noticing the lanky dude looking back down towards us. He seemed to almost shudder at my gaze before he carried on following the blonde chick.

We made sure there was some distance between us before we followed down the hall. Neither of us really took note of how far we were going down the hallway. I’m so fucking mad that I didn’t because all of the sudden I saw two people passing the lanky bloke and blonde chick and then... _oh shit_.

You know how I mentioned way back at the beginning how I believed in karma? Well you fucking know what? Just because I fucking pulled that prank on Eren, I so happened to became her bitch. Again. For the fucking second time! Karma! I fucking hate you!

_Oh fucking shit._

“Kirstein!” I swear, he was snarling at me. Holy fucking shit!

“Not now, Jaeger. Move it!” I called, trying to push past him as we met.

He had grabbed a fist full of my tank top and shoved me into the wall in the narrow hallway. “Like hell I’m going to move it, asshole!” He growled.

“Eren!” Armin and Mikasa had warned in unison. That earned a smirk on my face and I couldn’t help but enjoy it as the enraged face faded. Just like a fucking dog.

“You fucking owe me! You hear me, Kirstein! Shots of tequila. Tonight. At that party. You hear me!”

“Yeah, yeah, loud and clear, Jaeger. Are you hoping that your drunken ass will forget the humiliation of wetting yourself?”  I taunted. Hey, I just loved to push his buttons, it was fun to get a rise out of him. I knew my ass was always covered by Armin and Mikasa.

But then it suddenly hit me. Shit! Shit fuck! Oh fucking shit! Holy god! Damn no! The fact that Armin and I had been following the lanky bloke and blonde chick finally rushed back to my head and when I looked again they were gone. They were fucking gone! Damn you fucking Eren Jaeger! The biggest shit-stain on this fucking earth! Like hell I owed you a fucking drink!

“Armin...” I sobbed as Eren finally released his hold.

“I know, we lost them,” his voice was strangely quiet. “It’s alright! We’ll find them again, don’t worry!”

 

-

 

Dinner was the same as always on that night. They had a special theme of curry on this particular night which went down really well with the milkshake cocktails we all bought. Although I was still mad at Eren for getting me distracted and losing sight of the two friends of the freckled boy, I couldn’t help but feel a little better knowing that they were at least on the fucking ship. It was like Armin had said when we walked up for dinner, “we’ll find them tomorrow for sure.”

I bloody hoped so.

Just as Sasha and Connie had mentioned, there was a party happening on Deck 12. It was outside, close to the doors of the buffet and one of the swimming pools outside. It almost came to no surprise that it was lively as fucking ever. Now, I don’t really know how different this works in every other countries on this planet, but in Aus the parties only normally start getting lively (with dirty dancing and drunken idiots making out) after one in the morning or even two. But this ship... This fucking ship was way out of everyone’s league. It wasn’t even ten at night and people were already drunk as drunk can be.

How the hell were any of these people’s kidneys (or livers) still working? Were they constantly drunk? Did they just sleep and drink all day? How did they even stand without feeling trippy from the ship’s movements?

I had to admit, it was a fucking blast. The music was blurting loudly from the speakers. The entertainers were cheering people on and there were even people filming this shit. Sasha and Connie were already wasted and dancing with the other idiots on the crowded dance floor and I didn’t stop myself from moving my feet to the beat too.

At some point I had gotten separated from Armin (and honestly, I had no idea where the fuck he went. But oh well. I was pretty sure the blond turd was smart enough to get back to the cabin, drunk or not) and was stuck with Eren and Mikasa as they laughed and sipped on their beers. I had bought myself one too and for once didn’t mind Eren’s annoyingly pitched voice as it tuned in with the music.

I constantly scanned the entire scene for the freckled boy. Hell, I was even looking out for the lanky dude. It was while I was looking out for someone tall when a group of people moved away from the other side of the bar and... holy fucking shit. Was that Armin!? Wait no... was that fucking Armin with the blonde man we ran into earlier on the day!?

My mouth dropped as I saw them talking and laughing. Armin held himself against the bar table and was laughing joyfully at whatever the man had said. _That fucking blond turd_. How fucking dare he! My fucking luck! Seriously. How does he find his hottie but I could not find mine!? I couldn’t help but think that it was that bitch, karma’s work again. What was the reason this time? Blondie’s new nickname?

“God, you look so jealous,” Eren laughed. “Looks like Armin is going to get some tonight.”

I didn’t reply at first. I just crossed my arms and tried to calm myself a little. Eren was just trying to egg me on so I would fight back. That’s all he ever wanted out of me. (Realistically anyway) But I knew Armin like the back of my hand. Blondie would never do that with a stranger on the first night. But the thought of him finally getting laid instead of me sparked something agro.

“Tequila shots. Now.” I hissed.

Eren cheered and bumped his shoulder against mine. “You owe me! So you’re buying!”

Before I knew it we had both downed five shots each without even a single protest on Mikasa’s behalf. I don’t even know what she was doing. All I remember was her staring and laughing her ass off at what a fucking mess Eren and I were. Trust me, like I had said before. Drinking cocktails all day and chugging down five shots of straight tequila was not in my league. This shit went straight to my head and oh dear lord, did it make me feel good.

I had drunkenly looked over the dance floor again. I remember feeling light as a fucking feather and not being able to see properly. Not to mention the pounding beat of the music and the ship’s motion was making it all a hundred times trippier than I would normally have felt after drinking this much. I guess it only added to the excitement.

Out of the blue I spotted the lanky bloke again. Without even thinking, I started walking towards him. Surely... Fucking surely, if the lanky dude was there, so would the freckled boy be. I was so happy, surprised and totally off my head that it didn’t matter that I could potentially meet him tonight. While drunk even, which only helped in my case. I was so drunk that I would easily get into anyone’s cabin, I’m sure!

When I finally reached the lanky boy who was in fucking full view, all I could do was stare because right next to him was the _freckled boy_. Oh hail freckled boy. I finally, finally got to see him again! I was so close and yet so far. They were standing right on the edge of the dance floor and _oh god_. The lanky boy had looked so awkward. But that didn’t matter because my eyes were trained on the freckled boy and on his tight black jeans and on that dark red buttoned shirt and _fuck me_ , freckled boy. Just come and _fuck me_.

But little did I know about that moment was that the lanky boy had spotted me too. And just as I was pushed by the crowed, my eyes had met his.

Oh. _Awkward_. That fucking awkward stare. Holy shit. What was wrong with this guy!?

I could tell he instantly was shitting his pants as soon as he spotted me and I was so close to laughing out loud when I was suddenly shoved over and pushed to my knees. When I looked again they were gone. The crowd had moved around me and all I could see and feel were moving limbs and then a hand grabbing my shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Mikasa giggled. Her face for once filled with worry and I found myself stumbling to stand. The moving ship and the dancing people only added that much trippiness to my head and I knew the journey back to the cabin tonight was going to be fun. I just nodded and allowed her to pull me out.

She was still pulling me towards the door leading to the stairs and I remembered seeing Eren stumbling next to her. The way back to the cabin was the biggest fucking laugh and holy shit. Second time round, it was still trippy as ever. I swear to god this boat was in a fucking angle. Was I even walking? It felt like I was fucking floating. No, I was swimming. I literally felt like I was swimming with the waves.

Before I even knew it, I was pushed onto the bed with covers thrown over me. I couldn’t help but stare at Mikasa with her shirt being hitched up, exposing her gloriously clean stomach and belly button as she tried pushing Eren back onto his top bunk. Which should of have been dry by now thanks to Gunther.

Then it was dark and we heard the door close. I laid there for a couple of minutes with the past hours flashing through my head hazily. Freckled boy in his getup. Armin with the man at the bar. Connie and Sasha making out on a deck chair. (Wait, what? When was that?)

“Ten-n buucks Arrrr-min is get-ting laid t-tonight,” Eren’s raspy and slurred voice filled the room.

“D-doubt it,” I yawned, turning over and staring at the blondie’s empty bed.

“H-he has the bawwls,” was Eren’s only retort.

“Okay,” was my last reply.

Just as I was drifting away in the motion of the rocking boat and spinning world, I heard banging on the door.

“F-fuck!” I hissed. I got up anyway which only meant I fucking fell over, hit my face into Armin’s bed and earned a laugh from Eren. When I opened the door the light from the hallway hit me like the fucking sun and the hiss that came out at the same time was shoved right back in as I was pushed backwards has the door closed.

“I’m not sleeping with the rabbits tonight,” she explained and helped me towards the bed in the dark.

Both Eren and I laughed and watched her figure climb into Armin’s bed. Just as I finally was back to drifting asleep Mikasa’s voice filled the silence.

“What’s that faintly digusting smell?”

That’s when I finally blew it. Everything. I fucking blew everything. Whether it was from the prank, the look on the lanky boy’s face, from Armin falling into the traps of a man with a stick up his ass or being so close to finally being near the freckled boy, it seriously did not fucking matter. Because all I did at that single moment was laugh.

Holy fuck, did I laugh. Laughing was the last memory I had of that night, oh and Eren’s groaning. But there was also the feeling of something hard hitting my head that knocked me out that I strangely remembered too.

 

-

 

The following day was a Sunday (January 5th) and I remember waking up to a splitting headache and the disgusting feeling of not being clean. I could still smell the sunblock on my skin from the day before and the strangely weird aftertaste of pineapple and apple in my mouth.

My eyes fell onto Armin’s bed and I was almost shocked to find that the blondie was sleeping in his bed with Mikasa. A slight smile found a way to my face as I knew I won the bet that Eren had dealt. Like I said, I knew Armin like the back of my hand and of fucking course would he not find his way into a stranger’s bed. But hey, he may have. It wasn’t like I’d push information out of him. I’d rather be in his good books for now if we were going to be buddies on this ship.

I was the first to get up and head for the shower. At least the shower did me good. The pressure was just right (as it always was) and it somehow managed to sooth the fucking awful headache I woke up with that morning.

Eventually I finished up and got dressed. I was taking my time until I noticed the digital clock on our desk. Which we had to request. Can you believe these idiots? They have not a single watch in the cabin rooms? You have to ask for one. God damn. I thought we were supposed to be treated like Kings and Queens while on here!? But wait, oh shit! It was already quarter past ten!

I quickly bent forward, nudging Armin awake. I didn’t care how little sleep he had. I needed important information out of him.

“Armin,” he stirred in his sleep, lifting his tired face and aimed his head towards where I was calling his name. He still had his eyes closed. I hate to fucking admit it, he once again looked too… cute… for his own good. That damn blondie!

“What time does breakfast end?”

“Huh?” He yawned, finally sitting up and stretching out.

I repeated the question as he still stretched out his probably stiff body. These beds weren’t exactly meant for two people and I could tell he had the unfortunate end of the deal. Mikasa was taking over the whole bed and I almost wanted to laugh at the sight of her. So, that’s what she looked like when she slept? Odd. I would have thought she’d look a hell of a lot cuter, but guess not.

“Eleven,” Armin croaked. He sneaked his eyes open; obviously the light of our cabin room was too bright for him.

“Fuck!” I shouted, earning jolts from both Eren and Mikasa.

“Guys! We’re going to miss breakfast! Get your asses out of bed!” I exclaimed, grabbing hold of Armin’s wrist and dragging him out of the bed.

“What are yo-” he started but I quickly interrupted him. “To hell am I going to miss those pastries today!”  

Armin hissed and jumped into action. I swear I had never seen him get changed as fast as he did. I managed to drag Eren’s body down to the ground from the top bunk too. Amazingly enough he didn’t even put up a fight. Man, how much did he even drink last night? Actually, how much did we all even drink last night?

Mikasa headed out, telling us she was going to check if the rabbits were awake. Eren got changed surprisingly fast and once we had everything ready for the day since, we tended to avoid coming back to the cabin during the day, we headed out towards Deck 12. I digress, ’cause we ended up trudging back to the cabin after breakfast, but on a normal day we avoided going back.

I honestly, mother of god, did not know what was worse. The heat or the fucking sun. We (well, I sure as hell was) were still hungover as shit and the rocking of the boat didn’t do us any fucking good. But with the heat and sun hitting us like a tidal wave as soon as we left the air-conned hallways, we almost died. Seriously. It was so fucking hot. People were actually in the sun, in the pool, and just doing what they always do, drinking and laughing and tanning.

I, for one, was opting to spend my day like that too, but I wanted to find the freckled boy. Especially after the previous night. Oh god, he had looked like a total hottie that night. I was almost drooling at the thought of him in that red button up with the sleeves hitched up to his elbows. A drink in hand and slightly moving up and down to the beat that was playing. Okay, fuck it. He was just hot. A total beaut. Oh god.

Anyway, we finally reached the buffet and I ran towards the pastries before even looking for a fucking table. I was not going to miss out on these things. They were like drugs. Once you have one, you cannot stop. The best part of it all was that for some reason it made my hangover (well, the first and only time at that point) disappear. Whatever holy ingredients were in these delicacies was worth waking up with a hangover for. Seriously.

As soon as Connie, Sasha and Mikasa joined us, we found a table and began digging in. Surprisingly it was the first time we all had breakfast together since our first day at sea. It was good to finally talk and laugh over the events from the previous night.

May I add that those pastries had worked miracles once more! Almost instantly in fact! I had forced everyone to try one and I swear the colour came back to our faces almost instantly. What was even in these fucking things?

“So, who was that guy you were talking to, Armin?” Sasha wiggled her eyebrows. Armin just looked down and nibbled at his toast. I watched his cheeks go a little flushed, reminding me how flustered he was when we first ran into the guy yesterday.

“I think his name was Erwin,” Armin finally replied after a gulp.

“You think?” Thank lord for Sasha and her pestering. I was actually thankful that she was the one to bring it up. I wasn’t exactly too sure if I was meant to reel information out of him or not.

“He was very nice! Even bought me a few drinks...”

“Nice? Fuck that. That’s more like he wants you in his pants,” I snorted. Not that I could blame the man, Erwin? I had the exact thoughts when I first saw Armin in my class in the first year of high school. Damn, that was a long time ago.

“No, he didn’t lead me on or anything. Actually...”

“Wait.” Eren interrupted him. “You didn’t get laid?”

“No?” Armin seemed confused at the question. “Why?”

Eren just pushed his hand through his really fucking messy hair and then eyed me. I just shrugged and carried on eating. Whatever.

“I just lost a bet, that’s all,” Eren finally explained in a weak voice.

“You guys are the biggest asses, ever.” Connie stated.  “Well it seems Jean has you beat there, Eren,” Sasha quickly added.

“Shut up. It’s not like I’m gay and know all these things,” Eren dismissed. Taking a giant gulp of his fruit juice.

“It’s alright. I figured you’d do something like that. It actually makes me happy,” Armin had smiled almost too bright. I really wanted to pester him more about the previous night but I saw the look he gave me when I was about to speak up. The look told me if I bring it up, it’d be bad for me. No way in hell was I going to go against the blond turd’s orders. Call me whipped, I don't even care. Everyone else got the message to drop the topic and soon we fell into silence. That was until Armin spoke again.

“We should head back to our cabins after this. We better give Gunther our dirty laundry.”

“I forgot about that!” Sasha exclaimed. “You’re our saviour, Armin!”

“Don’t forget we need to book the tour for tomorrow,” he carried on.

“The Great Barrier Reef one?” Mikasa asked.

“Yes.” Armin nodded.

Okay, way back before we even got onto this ship; Armin had spent a whole day explaining everything to us. None of us (well, I guess I could excuse Mikasa, she was pretty into reading all this shit up too) were really too keen on reading all the details about the ship (because we all just wanted a fucking holiday away from trouble) so Armin did it all. That’s why I have been silently thanking him for being such a smartass as he is. That brain really does come in handy it seems, since he loves researching about every single thing, none of us stopped him.

Anyway, first point, Armin told us laundry days were on Sundays. These were for free. But if we wanted any other washing done on other days, we’d get charged. Apparently it’s fucking expensive. I just hope to god I wasn’t charged for my soiled shirt from the first day… I eventually found out that I wasn’t, by the way. Second point, if we wanted any tours or do any of those kinds of activities on shore, we had to make bookings the day before. Which leads me to how we spent a fucking day arguing as to what was worth booking and what wasn’t. Somehow the blondie had conned us into agreeing that going on a diving cruise to the Great Barrier Reef would be a great idea. Fishes were pretty, he said. Our natural reefs was worth seeing, he said.

I really hoped it was a good agreement.

Before we headed to the reception on Deck 5, we quickly passed our way to the cabins to throw whatever dirty clothes we had into a waiting basket by the door for our cabin steward.

“Did you find the freckled boy yesterday at the party?” Armin had asked as we walked down the stairs to Deck 5. Again, the elevators were always so busy, so we all opted to the stairs. Thank god my legs were finally okay.

“Yeah, he was there with the lanky bloke.” The surprised look Armin gave me boosted my ego just a bit, but I knew with the news I had to tell him, he would only be disappointed in my actions.

“Did you go up to him?”

“I wish. I was about to but the fucking drunken crowd pulled me down,” I explained.

“...How?” He looked really confused, poor blondie.

“Well, since you were flirting with-” I added quotation marks with my fingers, “Erwin, I was getting pissed.” He just nodded for me to carry on.

“I was so drunk that when I saw him I didn’t move fast enough and got knocked over.”

Armin laughed at that. “I would have thought your flirtatiousness would have gotten you there quicker without stumbling.”

“Shut up. I was just really drunk, okay?” I rubbed the back short hairs of my undercut. Actually, this is a good point to bring this up. Did I ever make mention that I have an undercut hairstyle? It’s fucking rocking, okay? There are loads of people who dig it, okay? It’s worth it

“Well then, we’ll keep searching after we booked the tickets,” Armin finished.

 

-

 

Just like yesterday, there was not a freckled boy in sight. What the fuck. Why the fuck!? Why!? Was I doomed to only see this boy when I was fucking drunk? Was I doomed to only find his friends?  Why? At that point I decided that if I was going to find his friends again, I would stalk the fucking shit out of them. Follow them to wherever. Follow them for rest of the fucking day if I had to. There was no way I was going to go with another day of not talking to the freckled boy.

Why? At the time I didn’t really question why I was so desperate to talk to him. There were so many other beauts on this ship that I could have aimed for. Some of which I passed by on a daily basis even. After a while I realised you stick to a certain crowd of people. To get into another crowd was fucking hard and of course, the freckled boy and his friends were obviously sticking with a different one. But no. It was those damn freckles. It was those dark side burns that shaped his square jaw. It was just... Something about him. I had to talk to him at least. Even if he was going to be straight. Or even if we wouldn’t get along. I wanted to talk to him anyway.

Eventually Armin and I gave up after searching the decks twice. In the end we agreed to just head to Deck 14 (a change to our secluded padded deck chairs) where the others told us they were going to be. Deck 14 was mostly just a balcony level, as mentioned before, that overlooked Deck 12 and the pools. Did I mention that Deck 14 had deck chairs too during the day? Yeah well, they do. It’s the location for optimal tanning, apparently. It was Sasha who had nearly drilled that information to us one evening. But it’s not like I needed darker skin. I was too hot and tanned as it was. A darker tan would only make me look even more yellow once autumn hit.

But anyway, that’s I wasted another afternoon. Laying there with sunnies over my eyes, a loose t-shirt, my board shorts and thongs. Oh, and the fruity cocktail on the side. It couldn’t have been a better way to get over the lack of sleep we had the previous night or the recurring headache from all the drinks and shots. That was until the smell hit us. Oh. Oh how glorious… It was like heaven. It was like the crew had decided it was time to make all the fucking people on the outside decks become starved crocodiles. 

I sat up immediately noticing there was a barbie on Deck 12. Even the sizzling of cooking sausages could be heard from where we were. Oh god. My mouth was fucking watering. I needed one so bad. It had been so long since Connie threw a barbie party.

“It’s two. Looks like they decided to have a barbie for the afternoon snack,” Armin broke my gaze.

“Man, that smells so good,” Eren whined, already bending over the railing in front of our deck chairs.

I wasn’t all that surprised when I spotted three familiar faces. I looked to the side to where Connie, Sasha and Mikasa was in the line. I _was_ surprised though that their squeals hadn’t ruined our ears and that they were strangely patient to receive their sausages.

“Match made in heaven obviously smelt it miles away,” I snickered. “They could have told us. They even fucking told Mikasa.”

“Let’s skip in line,” Eren stated, already leaving Armin and me behind. We jumped to our feet before Eren was even two metres away. For once the shit-stain had a great idea.

Now, you may be asking why is this little scene so important? Aren’t Aussies always so obsessed with barbies that they don’t need to boast about it anymore? Well, my dear readers. This barbie was the best I’ve had in a long time. It wasn’t just because the sausage was as juicy as ever. It wasn’t because the mustard and tomato sauce was running down my mouth and chin as I scoffed it down like I was a starving man. Oh no….

This barbie was important because right when I took the last gulp, my eyes landed on that lanky bloke. The mother fucking lanky bloke. Why in all living hell was he so easy to spot and not the freckled boy? Why!? He was being served four sausages and as soon as my brain clicked and caught up to my eyes, I jumped into action.

Armin and Eren had finished theirs off just as quickly as me, so once I saw the lanky boy on the move, I grabbed Armin’s arm.

“The lanky bloke,” I hissed under my breath. Armin spotted him as soon as the words left my mouth and said, “are we going to follow him? But we can’t leave Eren alone.” I forgot to mention. Sasha and Mikasa had gone off to the toilets and Connie was in line for seconds. Or thirds? I don’t know, you could have as many as you really wanted.

“Fuck. Let’s bring him,” I grudgingly said. I just hoped to god that the shit-stain wouldn’t say or do anything stupid.

Armin grabbed hold onto Eren (which earned a yelp out of him) and we got walking. Now, personally, I think we were stealthy as fucking ever. Since we messed up the previous day and got caught, we knew a better way to follow the lanky bloke. Thankfully he was taking the stairs and thankfully Eren didn’t argue or question us as Armin told him we were just looking to see where the bloke was going.

The walk was long and would you even believe that he led us to Deck 5!? Like what the fuck were they doing there on such a good day? I mean sure, it was hot as hell and it was hard to breathe in the sun… Why hide away from such good weather!? But then I remembered how white the freckled boy’s legs were and it made so much sense.

Once the stair climbing ended and we followed the lanky boy to the clearing, I spotted him. There he was… Sitting on a plush and comfy looking chair. The other two blondes were with him on their own seats. There was coffees on the table, since they were sitting by the café, and were idly chatting to each other. The blonde chick looked like she’s seen better days with the bags under her eyes and the blond bloke looked like he was suffering from a really bad hangover. I assumed they were there with the lanky bloke and freckled boy at the party and were suffering just as much as we were. Minus the heat, I guess?

Armin and I found a table and seats right next to theirs and sat down quietly. By now Eren was full of curious questions, all of which Armin had answered vaguely. I was actually grateful Armin was being especially cryptic to Eren about this. Bless you, blondie. Fucking bless you. How on earth did I ever make a friend like you?

I wasn’t really listening because my eyes and ears were trained on the group next to us. The freckled boy didn’t talk much. When he did, I couldn’t hear him because he sat so far away. He laughed often and his face was constantly beaming with a bright smile. The closest I sat next to was the lanky bloke, who spoke very quietly. That fucking explained everything. Including all the times he was shitting himself whenever I looked at him. He was the shy, quiet type. Incredibly anxious over everything. I’m sorry bloke, I really am. But thank you so fucking much for leading me to the freckled boy.

We ended up ordering our own drinks. I opted for a creamy frappe as coffee would have killed me. My adrenaline was already fucking sky rocketing by having the freckled boy’s face in the corner of my eye.  And yeah... I can confirm. What a fucking hottie. Holy shit. Those freckles did wonders on his face. Whoa.

At some point I began talking to Armin and Eren and was surprised at how many times Armin’s eyes lurked over towards the group. What was he even thinking at this point? Was he thinking of a way to help me get closer to the freckled boy? We had finally found him and yet I was stuck as to what to do next. It wasn’t like I could just go up to him and be like, ‘you’re a total beaut. Wanna fuck and get to know each other?’ That would scare away the fucking guy. Even I’d be creeped out by that on a normal given day.

That was until I overheard this crew woman. Her voice was so loud and vibrant that I think even the people next to us heard her. She was carrying a wooden clipboard and was asking if they wanted to do a cocktail class tomorrow. I heard the blond bloke saying something about the evening class and all I could do was grip the chair tightly. Holy fucking shit. This. This might be my chance! I could sign up for one and see them there! Yes! Perfect opportunity!

As soon as the lady walked past us, I quickly grabbed hold of her wrist. She looked at me with furrowed brows and I sent her a charming smile.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about a cocktail class. Can I book a cocktail making session for tomorrow too?”

Her eyes lit up as she finally realised I didn’t grab her for any other reason. “Oh right! Sure! The afternoon session at four or evening session at eight, sir?”

“Evening,” I nodded.

“Just you or would your group like to join in too?” She asked politely.

“Hold up one second,” I flashed my index finger to her, looking over towards Eren. God damn. Of all people, it had to be Eren Jaeger who I had to ask.

“Jaeger! Do the cocktail class with me,”

“The what?” Eren’s eye flew open. “I ain’t sucking no coc-“

“No, no! Cocktail, you know the drink, you dipstick!” I nearly shouted. God, what a fucking tool. Eren just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and gave me an apologetic smile.

“Ah! I want to!” Armin chirped, grabbing hold of Eren’s arm as he replied bubbly, “make that three of us.”

“Alright, sirs,” the lady nodded. She took our cards and wrote our names down. We had to sign next to our names to confirm.

Fucking finally! One step closer to the freckles. Fuck yes!

“Why cocktails? Don’t we have that snorkelling thing tomorrow?” Eren asked.

“I think learning to make cocktails might be fun,” Armin tried to defend me. Oh blondie, thank you so fucking much.

“Even if we’re going to be shit tired by tomorrow night?”

“Jaeger, shut up,” I growled. I did not care if he was dragged into this. I was just so relieved that I could finally get a chance to talk to the freckled boy. Tomorrow was going to be a good day. A glorious fucking day. I would go swim with Nemo and Dory and then I’d make cocktails with a beauty. Hell yeah!

Well, to be bluntly honest, rest of the evening went without a hitch. The freckled boy’s group left after a while and even when Armin asked if we should follow, I just shook my head. I was going to see him again tomorrow. I would prefer to avoid that awkward, sweating looking lanky boy for rest of today. I really, at all costs, did not want to see him shitting his pants again.

After relaxing in the setting sun (and fucking heat) we had dinner and lazed around. By some miracle headed to bed early too. We had to wake up at six-fucking-thirty in the morning just to get off the ship at seven-thirty for our diving boat at eight-thirty. All of which sounded way too early for me, but hey, I was actually a little excited.

But sleep didn’t find me easily that night. All I could think about was the freckled boy and how square jaw, pale skin in contrast to his dark freckles. The way the black skinny jeans had sit on him from my hazy drunken memories. Even after Connie’s snores and the slight, rhythmic shuffling coming from Eren’s bunk above me filled the room, I still thought of him. But now of that bright smile; brighter than Armin’s when I had made him happy, and that strange glowing aura that surrounded him. He seemed genuine and like a good friend to have around. It made me even more excited to meet him.

The cocktail class couldn’t come any sooner. Heck, sleep couldn’t even come. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning when I finally drifted off with the motion of the boat.

 

-

 

“Jean, it’s time to go.” Was my wakeup call on Monday (January 6th) by none other than Armin. I was about to turn over, hoping I could get another couple minutes of sleep in, but was disappointed when I felt the covers being pulled off me.

“Lazy ass, wake up! We’re going to be late!” Eren’s annoyingly pitched voice did the trick.

That’s how I found out that I slept through two alarms and countless nudges to the shoulders. I blame the freckled boy. It was his doing. It was his fault for being on my mind until the early hours of the morning.

Breakfast went without a hitch. We ended up packing some extra foods in our backpacks, although we’d be fed lunch on our tour. Definitely packed the water from cabins as well. Both Armin and I double checked. No way in hell were we going to forget that this time.

Now, getting off the ship at Port Douglas was a fucking pain in the ass and suddenly I understood why Armin said we should get in line at seven-thirty instead of later. This time we weren’t docked anywhere. Hell no. We were still out in the ocean with Port Douglas in view, if you squinted.

So, I may have mentioned what a fucking disaster and pain in the ass Brizzie was. This was far worse. First we had to wait in a huge as queue to get a ticket number. The ticket numbers were given in groups. We were pretty lucky to get a good one that was pretty early. Then we had to go to deck 5 and wait until the ticket group was called out. Of course, Deck 5 was crowded as hell with chatty people who look far more excited than they should be this early in the morning.

Funnily enough, I did spot the freckled boy’s group. I was a bit disappointed when our group was called. They weren’t going to be on the same boat as us. Damn. I didn’t let it bother me though. I was going to see him tonight and that made me unbelievably fucking happy.

Once we went to the correct area, we had to walk down so many steep stairs until we walked through those scanners and this crew lady scanned our cards. You’d think she’d be bored out of her mind with all the barcodes she’d have to scan that day alone. But nope, she was smiling and telling us to have a good day. How the heck did these crew people even survive having to keep a smile on their faces all the time? I would have quit within one fucking day.

Finally we were guided onto these things called tender boats. Thanks to Armin for teaching me that word. I would have just called it a boat. Apparently these are the things that are meant to save us if the ship was ever to sink. It was pretty rocky and I could tell by the look on Mikasa’s face that she didn’t agree with the motion. Thank god I wasn’t sitting anywhere near her this time. There was no way in fucking hell that I was going to ruin my freshly washed shirt. Even though I was wearing my bathers, there was no way. No fucking way. I haven’t been shit to anyone in particular so there was no way karma could strike me today! I did feel bad for her though, the heat and humidity outside didn’t help anything at all. God, why was it so fucking hot!?

The boat trip to the marina in Port Douglas was pretty quick. It’s not like I actually time this shit, but Armin told us it would be a good twenty minutes. Not that he really cared because he was having one of those photography spazzes again. I just hoped to god that I wasn’t going to be his camera boy again. Screw that. I was going to snorkel with Nemo and Dory today.

The first of us who got off the boat was Mikasa. I swear, she ran. She actually fucking bolted right out of the tender boat. It was almost comical. I sure as hell couldn’t blame her. The boat trip was so rough that I’d be amazed if the blondie’s pictures weren’t blurry. Anyway, we followed her in the end, at the end of the wooden docks, right by the concrete covered land. It was safe to say that that even though I was on fucking dry land again (yay!) I could still feel the ship’s movement. By the looks on everyone’s faces, I wasn’t the only one. At least we’d be on a ferry boat all day and swimming.

“We got thirty minutes until our tour. Should we walk around?” Armin asked after we took sips of water (seriously, the fucking heat was killing us. I was sweating as much as that lanky boy) and made sure we were stable enough on the ground. Mikasa was already a lot less pale (thank god) after she took some tablets that the medical centre gave her.

“Walking would be good,” she replied. I guess walking did make the feeling a hell of a lot better to handle.

So, what is Port Doulas and where is it? It’s still in Queensland, the state that Brizzie is in. Basically it’s on the north-east side of Aus and outrageously popular with tourists. You have a choice when you’re here. You can either head inland to visit a rainforest or you could head out to the sea and go diving by the Great Barrier Reef. Oh, did I mention there was a small isle around here too? And they had this super small town nearby? And this place was crowded with holiday resorts, similar to the pacific islands? A total tourist location and so fucking expensive too. But it was beautiful. Honestly, one of the best spots in Australia if you love blue, clear beaches and relaxing summer resorts. We’re proud of our reefs, for sure.

We somehow managed to find a souvenir shop for Armin (actually, he was the one who led us into it) and it didn’t surprise me at all that he bought something for his grandfather. It didn’t even bother me when he bought an underwater disposable camera, knowing full well that I was going to be in charge of it once we’re in the water. Anyway, it was just another boring souvenir store. We had fucking hundreds of these all over Aussie. Like seriously, you could not escape them, wherever you went. You know the best part about these kinds of shops though? They sell these funny kangaroo and koala shit-shaped chocolate. Yeah, you heard me. Shit made out of chocolate. It’s a fucking Aussie thing, okay? The worst part is that the chocolate always tastes so good.

We didn’t stay in there too long before we headed out into the scorching hot sun and to the marina again to board our small boat for our tour. There weren’t too many people on our one which was good. I hated crowded boats more than anything else. We were all so excited about this snorkelling extortion, until we realised that we were stuck with this really annoying and loud woman. Like what the actual fuck was wrong with her? Did she ever fucking calm down? Okay, I’ll admit now, the bloke she was with was A-class hot and holy damn was he tall! The short beard and moustache he was showing off was good on him too. She on the other hand was okay, but her personality definitely made her too excitable. I swear she was fucking chanting “fishies” the whole time while we waited for the crew to begin instructing us. I made sure I sat far away as possible. I was curious though how she was going to snorkel with glasses on. What do people normally do in these situations?

Our ‘tour guide’ (would they really be a tour guide in this case?) explained that we’d be going to three different locations on the reefs and that around lunch time we’d get a buffet lunch with mostly seafood. How fucking ironic. I sure hope to god there was no Nemo on the menu.

The ride to the first location was interesting as they explained to us what to do and what to wear. We were split into two groups. Of course, when we booked we decided not to go scuba diving. Although Armin and Eren protested and said it’d be a great experience, the others and I said that no way in hell would we be able to pay that much extra just to dive deeper. So we would only go snorkelling. Which was still fucking good!

We got flippers with goggles and a snorkel each and were told to stick together while they made sure all of us could swim well with them. Of course, before we were allowed to jump into the water at the back of the boat, the divers could go first.

“That is a really cool camera!” Armin had said when he saw the crazy women get it ready for her scuba diving. Oh god. There goes the blond turd, making friends with the fucking weirdo on our boat. Damn you blondie.

“I know, right!” She replied almost instantly. Her excitement was so high that even I was feeling fucking excited. Like what was up with that? “I wanted to make sure I could capture the best of the reef!”

“You’re so lucky. I’ve only got a disposable camera,” Armin sighed. “But that’s okay! I bought this great documentary on the reef at the sou-”

At this point I just tuned out Armin. Like hell was I going to hear him gabble on about the history of the reef and other fucking nerdy shit. Instead, I joined the others who were oddly quiet. Sasha was going on about how she couldn’t wait to see all the fishes and Connie was just humming in reply. It didn’t look like he cared much. But on the other side of Sasha was Eren who was almost just as excited as her. God, was he actually looking forward to swimming with the fishes?

“Make sure you don’t eat any, Sasha,” I joked. She shot me a glare and replied, “no way. They’d be too pretty to eat!”

The others just laughed until Armin joined us. Eventually we got told that it was our turn to jump into the water.

“Better not drown, Jaeger,” I called after Eren did actually jump into the water. The droplets that landed on me was ice cold but the blistering sun (did I make mention that it was a fucking hot day like usual?) warmed it up almost too quickly.

Okay, I wouldn’t call my first time getting into the water as ‘jumping into the water.’ It was more like trying to climb down a metal ladder with fucking flippers on. It was hard as fuck. I only climbed because it felt like the most sensible thing to do. I wasn’t as stupid as Jaeger to just jump into open water like that. The water was too cold which made it even worse. After a while it became almost too good to even leave. But the weirdest part was how clear it was. I could even see my fucking flippers as clear as ever! I had never swam in water where I could literally see everything underneath me. It was almost surreal.

After a small lesson given to us by an instructor, we all swam away. Every now and then I’d throw my head under the water and looked at the reef bellow us. It was fun for a while until it got a bit boring and annoying. I could already tell my neck was going to hate me later.

Armin had grabbed onto my wrist at one point and together we swam deeper, following fishes as far as we could until we needed air. If I could be completely honest, it was really pretty. Like nothing I’ve ever seen in my eighteen years of life. The vibrant colours of the reef and all the different fishes swimming around us was the most out of this world but the coolest thing to ever experience.

Having Armin’s underwater camera was possibly the greatest fucking thing ever. The amount of messed up photos we took was hilarious! Armin even allowed us to take silly photos of each other in the reef. Well, as long as he had a couple of good shots of the fishes and reef with a few extra selfies and poses of him by it too.

After the second location we were finally allowed to eat. By then we were all starving! The amount of swimming we had done was out of this fucking world. I had been swimming for over three hours straight and my legs and arms were already killing me.

Normally I’d gag at the idea of eating crabs and other really odd otherworldly creatures from the sea, but since I was starving like a homeless man, I gulped it all down. Who the hell knew fish could taste so good? Thank god Nemo wasn’t on the plates either! Score! We ate while we were all laughing and talking about things from our snorkelling adventures. Even that strange woman had joined us, who later introduced herself as Hanji Zoe, a Marine Biologist on holiday. God, no wonder she had such a fucking pro camera! She also introduced her friend, Mike Zacharius, who surprisingly was super quiet and hot. Just so fucking hot.

I found myself drifting out of conversations quite often as I thought about the class I was to attend tonight. The more I asked Armin the time, the more excited I got. Eight just couldn’t have come any sooner. How could I not be excited and nervous about finally being able to talk to the freckled boy? I tried to not let it get to me and focused on the activity on hand, but god, I couldn’t. For once in my fucking life someone actually took over my thoughts. Why did this make me sound like a love-struck fucking school girl? Why was this freckled boy who I never have even spoken to taking over me and threw my brain into mush?

I knew I had been staring too long at the shoreline whenever Armin nudged me or gave me a weary look. I ended up releasing a sigh and listening back into the conversation at hand.

The last location wasn’t much different as the other two. Actually, I swear to god they all looked the same, what with the clear blue water and colour reef coming through from under us. Expect this time we were all so incredibly tired and didn’t swim much at all. Armin and I had parted ways (once again) from everyone else and ended up swimming lazily over the top of the reef. Only a couple of times did we dive down deeper to take a closer look, but I could tell Armin was struggling just as much as my aching muscles.

“Are you really that nervous for tonight?” He had asked as we swam back to the boat.

“Hah? What even gave you that idea?” The question had caught me off guard. Did I really look nervous? What!? I was far, far from nervous. I was more like fucking excited! Pumped more like it!

“You keep staring off. Are you planning what to say to him?”

I guess at this point, I needed Armin’s favour. Which was the stupid if I think about it now. Only because, like I said earlier, I was a fucking badass flirt. I could get guys and girls down on their knees and in my pants on a regular basis at parties. But for some unknown reason, every time I’ve seen the freckled boy or thought about what to say to him, I clutch up. I go fucking blank. What the hell was up with that?

“Jean?”

That caught my attention. “Right... So... do you think you could be my wingman tonight? If I fuck something up, that is,” I asked quietly. The look on Armin’s face was a surprise. He didn’t have to be that shocked about it.

“So you are nervous? Wow. Who’d ever think I’d see Jean Kirstein with his grundies in a twist,” he teased. Don’t worry, Armin. I even surprised my fucking self. Heck, I don’t even feel normal about this. The freckled boy seemed to have a way with me already, hell!

“Shut up. Come on, you owe me the favour.”

“I know, I know. But, that’s so unlike you...” He was silent for a minute after. “I’ll do it though. If you say anything stupid, I’ll be there,” he agreed.

I just hummed him a reply. I didn’t need to thank his ass for anything. More like he needed to thank me. I was his personal tour guide and camera man on that day at Brizzie. He owed me this much at least, if not a ton more for what is to come.

Once we reached the boat and got back on, we joined in Mikasa’s and Sasha’s conversation while their buddies were still snorkelling. All I could do was try to laugh away the actual anxiety I felt about finally talking to the freckled boy.

Even when everyone else returned to the boat and the crew announced we were sailing back, the feeling stayed in the pit of my stomach.

I, Jean Kirstein, was going to meet the freckled boy tonight. Finally. Fucking finally. I didn’t care about anything else. Not the fact that I could feel the sunburn on my shoulders and chest. Not the fact that the crab meat was stirring weirdly in the pit of my stomach. Or not even the fact that we had to rush to get back on the ship. I definitely could care less when that crazy woman, Hanji, said we should meet the following day on the ship and meet her other two friends.

All I could think about was, finally. _Fucking finally_.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Next chapter Marco and Jean will finally meet!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who is still reading at this point!  
> If there are any mistakes my beta-readers and I missed, feel free to point them out! I would also love some feedback!
> 
> The chapter was pretty long (and a little heavy) but it just wouldn’t stay short like how I originally wanted it to! Hopefully it turned out enjoyable! It was a whooping 12k chapter! So huge!
> 
> Thank you to my beta-readers: thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri! Please follow them on tumblr! Thank you guys for motivating me to do this! Also thank you to seekingperfection (on AO3) for helping me decide on a few things!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Agro – angry  
> Gobsmacked – astonished  
> Donger - penis (although, it's pronounced like donga)  
> Rents – short for parents  
> Grundies – underwear  
> Wanker – idiot (ya' wanker!)  
> Pissed - drunk  
> Barbie - BBQ  
> Nemo and Dory – Uh..... Finding Nemo? Obviously Jean forgot Merlin.  
> Bathers – swimsuits or pants. Or well, in all of the guy’s cases, board shorts.  
> Spaz – energetic.... hyperactive?
> 
> I think for now on I'll lessen the tidbits to words that aren't used that often in the fic! Hopefully the other slang that pops up is understandable!


	4. Cocktail Class

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more, thank you so much for the kudos, hits and bookmarks! 
> 
> I’ll start off by saying that I know next to nothing about cocktail making! Hopefully I do the cocktail making scene justice! I just went ahead and picked popular ones. Okay, I know that a pina colada is made by a blender and not by a shaker. But for the sake of the story and for the sake that they don’t have that many blenders, I decided to stretch the truth, haha. I guess now that researched more about it, the drinks ended up being more like martinis! Oops!
> 
> So, as usual! Sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise!

 

 

_Day 6 -7  
In which Jean Kirstein finally talks to Marco Bott._

* * *

The rush back to the ship was far too hectic. Our tour took a while to get back to the marina which meant we made it just in time for the last tender boat back to the ship at four-thirty. It was so incredibly busy that we were packed in that fucking boat like sardines in a tin. Considering I already smelt like fish from all the food we had at lunch and the salt-water; it wasn’t hard to imagine that we were.

After spending the day on a smaller boat and swimming around the clear blue waters, the tender boat didn’t seem as rough as this morning which meant there was not a single sight of paleness on Mikasa’s face. But, the most annoying part of it all was how the crazy woman we had met and somehow befriended was on there too, chatting her fucking mouth dry with Armin. Part of me didn’t mind, since it allowed me to drift away and daydream about what I was going to be doing in three and a half hours, but the other part of me wanted to think of something else. I needed something a little distracting as the thought of finally talking to the freckled boy in a few short hours was starting to make me nervous and sweaty.

Like the other painstakingly slow port we had in Brizzie, the way back up the ship was almost the same. This time though, the stairs that we were to climb up only made the entire experience worse. After spending the day swimming our fucking legs off meant the last thing any of us wanted was climb up steep stairs. The thought of the air-conned paradise awaiting me was what kept me pushing.

It was impossible to miss the whines coming from Jaeger, Connie and Sasha. Not that I could blame them. My legs were about to fucking fall off too. Surprisingly enough, Armin didn’t say much at all. But I could tell by the tiredness on his face that he wasn’t enjoying the climb either. Mikasa was stoic as always too. But hey, if you asked me, she was the fucking fittest out of all of us, so I highly doubted it bothered her.

Armin, Sasha and Mikasa had left the rest of us blokes when we reached our deck, Trost. They wanted to film and photograph the porting with their new-found, hyper friend. Not that it was such a big deal to film though since we were miles away from Port Douglas. I clued it down to the fact that the water was an incredible blue around us.

Once Eren, Connie and I reached the cabin, it seemed like a giant lift was pulled off us as we all flopped onto the lower bunk beds. At this point, I was so fucking tired and sunburnt that I didn’t even care that the shit-stain was lying next to me on my bed. Okay, scratch that! Maybe a little.

“Get off my bed, Jaeger,” I grumbled eventually as I planted my face into the pillow. “You smell like a fucking fish.”

The shit-eater had the nerve to chuckle and mumble something I seriously could not fucking understand and turned to his side. Obviously he showed no signs of moving. That fucker.

I opted to taking a shower instead. As much as a sleep sounded so heavenly at that second, a shower was what I needed first. My skin was still sticky from the sea water and sunblock, and my hair had a gross sticky wetness to it that I avoided even touching it with my own hands. Plus, the water pressure would do wonders to my already aching muscles. Oh dear god, was it heavenly. I had no idea how long I was in there, staring away at literally nothing until I was interrupted by banging of the door and of Eren yelling at me.

“Get out of the bathroom! If you don’t, I’m going to piss on your bed.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, I was out of that shower at the speed of light. No way in fucking hell was I giving him an excuse to get me back for that prank. Actual piss would be such a fucking pain to explain to Gunther. No way in hell!

I didn’t even have time to pull on my set of clean clothes I had waiting on the closed toilet lid. I just grabbed everything with a towel around my waist and was out of there before the shit-stain could bang his grubby fist on the door again.

The shit-eating grin that awaited me at the corner of the small hallway annoyed me. He seemed too perky at the fact that I got out so quickly. Made me wonder if he planned something sketchy.

“What’s going on?” Connie grumbled from Armin’s bed once I rounded the corner.

“Jaeger just disturbed my shower,” I complained, pulling a short-sleeved dress shirt over my head that I had picked out earlier. I tried to get the nicest one that I had, aside from the plain white. A little tan coloured with a touch of green, something Armin said looked good on me. Could you blame me? I wanted to look nice for the freckled boy. You know, leave a good impression and all.

“You were taking fucking forever,” Eren scoffed, already back from his leak. God. He made me get out of the fucking shower just for that!?

“Connie, you want the shower first?” Eren asked. I could see him in the corner of my eye, hanging around the corner that leads to the bathroom.

“Nah, man. I’m going back to sleep,” Connie groaned. Eren had said something back but I didn’t really listen or care.

At that point I realised I forgot to get new boxers. Luckily I was close to the draw where we kept all our grundies and shit. Somehow, don’t ask why, we decided that the draws between the two bunk beds would be a good spot to keep our grundies and items we needed quickly. Including our cellphones. I still laugh about that. But, as I’m sure the whole world knows by now, I have the worst luck a guy could ever fucking have because by some fucking miracle my towel decided to unhook itself and fall down. Now, I wouldn’t really have a problem with it if the two people (who seriously didn’t need to see this fucking mishap) hadn’t realised. But fuck. They did. As soon as I heard Connie’s snort, I knew I was in deep shit. I was going to get slammed.

“Shit,” I hissed, quickly picking it up and wrapped it around my waist again.

Connie let a laugh slip before I saw his face. As soon as our eyes met, I swear to god I saw the most fucking ridiculous smirk ever. “Too bad you’re not hung like a horse, aye?”

All I heard was the fucking shit-stain’s laugh from behind me. Only then did I realise that the reason why the fucking towel ever fell in the first place was because he had grabbed it at the bottom end.

“Fucking Jaeger!” I spat. He jolted backwards and rushed away towards the bathroom before I could even grab a hold of him when I had turned.

“Consider that a tie!” He shouted.

I was just so fucking mad that I pulled my boxers on and grabbed the damp towel around my waist. I twirled it quickly as possible into a snake and eyed Connie with a smirk.

“Don’t you dare!” Connie tried to defend himself, sitting up on the bed. “I had nothing to do with this!”

No way in fucking hell was that going to stop me from whipping his ass. The funniest thing was that we could hear Eren howling with laughter from the bathroom. You damn lucky motherfucker. If only you were in here and not there. I would be whipping his ass a thousand times harder.

I ended up apologising to Connie as he rubbed his ass. Even offered up some ice from our mini fridge and freezer. I was still pretty tired and from that small ordeal, I realised that I still needed to get some sleep. I didn’t even bother to pull on any pants on the end. Instead I just flopped down onto the bed and easily found sleep.

 

-

 

The short hour and a half sleep that I had did me good. Like so good that when I woke up, I felt refreshed and ready for the cocktail class. Instead of being dragged out of bed like this morning, I found a freshly washed and actually good smelling Armin bending over me and shaking me gently. Even after all these years, Armin still used the same products. It always gave me a whiff of nostalgia. I don’t think it will ever not remind me of our high school days and late-night study sessions when he helped me to pass.

“It’s seven. I think we should have dinner and-” He started.

I didn’t even let him finish as I sat up at lightning speed. The thought of seeing the freckled boy within an hour got my heart suddenly beating fast. It was the strangest feeling at first. Being excited and yet nervous all at the same time for seeing a guy who I had never even fucking spoken to before. But the fact that he was such a hottie and that I spent two days stalking his friends so I could find him was enough to make it okay. I kind of enjoyed it though. It was something new and it was so incredibly exciting that I couldn’t wait to dive right into it. Even if it started off a little weird.

I jumped to my feet and pulled on the pants I had waiting on the bed. I even ran into the bathroom to give myself an overview. I had to look my fucking best! I _wanted_ to look my best. I wanted to look hot enough to get the freckled boy’s attention. Even if he was straight, or not even remotely interested in relationships. I still wanted to blow his freckles off his cheeks. I double checked my face, hair, and even loaded myself with some nice smelling spray. I made sure that I sprayed enough that whoever was still inside the cabin started choking.

“God, you wanker! Don’t fucking kill us with that shitty smell,” Eren complained.

“Yeah, well it smells a hell of a fucking lot better than your shitty cologne,” I teased. I heard Armin sigh as he rounded the corner.

“Not tonight guys, please. We had such a good day,” he moaned, rubbing his temples.

Just because I had asked Armin to be my wingman tonight, I decided to let it slide. I needed the blondie to be on my side tonight and perhaps even the days after it. So, I needed to make sure I was still in his good books, even if it meant less bickering with Jaeger. Maybe I did seem too eager about the whole thing, even as far as to going to these measures. But at this point I really did not even care.

I raced outside into the hallways outside out cabin door and impatiently waited as the shit-stain took his time to gather his things.

“Calm your fucking farm,” he had rolled his eyes when we walked towards Deck 12.  Like fucking hell he’d understand. He didn’t have someone as hot as the freckled boy to look forward to. If he was in my place, I bet my own fucking life that he’d be worse than me. I could almost imagine it, he'd beg us to run through the halls and eat our dinner at speed of light.

Armin had told me that the other three were watching a show on some other deck and that Sasha had gotten Connie half an hour ago for it. So, it was just us three who were going to the cocktail class.

I’ll be completely honest and say that dinner went alright. Even with Eren’s annoyingly pitched voice in my right ear about how he really didn’t want to learn how to make cocktails. I tried to scoff down as much food as I could, but the excitement of everything made me less hungry than I normally was. How fucking weird was that? I don’t think I had ever experienced such a feeling before. Not even when I was a first year in high school and was about to take Armin on our first date to the quietest cinemas in our area. Hell, I didn’t even feel this fucking nervous when we had our first kiss together. I guess this was the biggest sign that the freckled boy was something special. I could feel it through my bones, the wavering in my stomach and the pace of my heart. Even blondie had noticed throughout dinner.

 

-

 

The walk to the bar that the crew woman had told us about was nerve-wracking and I knew I was being obvious when Armin had bumped my shoulder with his. He sent me a smile and cheered me on quietly. Thank you, blondie. I’ll need all the luck I could get.

We eventually found a small bar on Deck 7. It was close to the open railing where you could see deck 5 and 6 bellow. It was just a small bar with a bar table shaped like a U surrounding it. There were many tiny bars like this all over the ship wherever there was a possible place. It reminded me of the one on Deck 12, except that one was more of a C shape than anything else. It was quite nice as it meant you could grab a drink just about anywhere. There were a couple of silver cylinders by each bar stool on the wrapped around bar table and a few glasses next to each cylinder. I instantly noticed there were already a couple people sitting on the chairs, including the freckled boy and his two blondes and the lanky bloke friends. My heart leaped at the sight! I moved before I even knew it!

I quickly rushed over, Eren and Armin following closely behind. Eren, the shit-stain, was about to take a seat on the bar stool next to the freckled boy. He had the fucking cheek to hop in front of me once he spotted the location I was heading, but I quickly shoved him off, earning a yelp from him in protest.

“What was that for, dickhead!?” He growled under his breath, realising he had nowhere else to go as Armin took the seat next to me on the left. He sighed, taking the one next to Armin, right on the corner and next to this short, agro looking man. Who funnily enough was wearing a fucking 90s hair cut with an undercut. If it wasn’t for that face he was wearing, I would have died laughing. He gave me a stern look as soon as he noticed my eyes were on him. I shuddered and I quickly looked away.  _Damn, that was scary_.

Is it cliché to say that the world stopped at that single moment? All I could hear was my heart beat in my ears. I was finally, finally close to the freckled boy. There was not even thirty centimetres space between us. A gentle lean to the right and our shoulders would touch.

Holy fuck, I must sound so desperate. But like, I was _finally_ sitting next to the freckled boy, the closest I had been yet! Good lord; I could smell the sunblock radiating off his skin even though it was obvious he’d changed since porting. He was wearing another hot and tight dress shirt that did nothing but make me sweat even more in excitement. I could hear him chuckling for the first time and.... That’s what he sounded like when he laughed!? _Oh heavens_. Oh my god. Thank you lord for blessing me with such a hottie. He sounded so dream-like that I almost found my confidence to bump him and start a conversation.

I could feel my blood boiling. How was I even going to concentrate on this class? How!? It took me so long to find him! Could I somehow just sit there and appreciate all my hard work!? If I was to die right there, I would have been happy. But, I needed more. I needed to actually fucking talk to him.

Armin bumped my shoulder lightly with his and I looked over to him. He sent me a knowingly smile and a thumbs up that I actually started giggling. Motherfucking giggling. What the hell was going on with me!? I never giggle! I wasn’t too sure at this point if it was my fucking nerves or the adrenaline of finally sitting next to the beauty that caused these kinds of reactions to come out of me.

A loud clearing of throat gathered everyone’s attention as the bartender had finally decided to start the class. He had long blond hair that was tied up in a small ponytail. I could not lie; he was actually good looking, whoa! The small stubble was really working well with his face shape too. If there is anything good about the crew members on this ship, it was the fact that they were all well-groomed and dressed to utter hotness. I guess they had to be to give the people on board five star service.

“My name is Eld Jinn and I’ll be showing you how to make four cocktails all of which are very popular on this cruise. First thing to note is please be gentle with the equipment. Be as professional as you can because if you break, you pay,” he warned us smugly.

I scrunched up my nose and leaned forward onto the bar table to eye Eren. He just frowned and laced his fingers around the wet silver cylinder. I saw Armin patting his arm, probably warning him not to do anything stupid like he always did.

The bartender (Or should I say, Eld) explained all the utensils in front of us, all of which I found kind of boring and not too exciting. Not that I was really listening because my heart was still pounding stupidly fast as I took note of the freckled boy fidgeting next to me. Every time he moved his arms, even just a little bit, I got a fresh whiff of sunblock and _oh lord_. Tonight was going to be a good night in the shower. Trust me, the way I was fucking sweating from excitement, I needed one so badly. I allowed myself to peek at him every once in a while, making sure I didn’t make it obvious like the first time in the buffet. I was happily surprised to see that his arms had freckles splattered over them too, much like his face and neck. It was borderline _cute_.

“Alright, any questions?” Eld asked, earning my attention again.

“Nah! Let’s just get to drinking!” I heard someone’s booming voice suggesting what everyone else was thinking. I heard the freckled boy next to me chuckle and cheer. Ah, it must have been one of his friends. It was obviously the blond bloke as I highly doubted that lanky dude could make such a huge noise, especially since he seems to always be shitting his pants. The weirdest part was that I swear that there was some kind of accent attached to the voice. I couldn’t exactly place it but I seriously could remember hearing it at least once before...

“So, the ones I’ll be teaching you all today are what fulfil some of the types you can order on this cruise. Sparkling or also known as wine, sour, creamy and fruity, and we’ll end on fresh and fruity.” He nodded, picking up the first bottle of wine and a giant bottle of fruit juice. Oh. How nice. This was actually going to taste good!

“The sparkling variety is the most easiest and common. It uses the method of stirring. About one-thirds of orange juice and two-thirds of wine. Easy enough,” he handed out two bottles of wines and jugs of oj to each ends of the U.

I tried making idle talk with Armin as we waited for our turn but something caught both of our attention and most likely everyone else’s too. It was that strange short and agro looking man again. You know the one who was sitting next to Eren on the corner.

“Can’t I just drink the bottle like this? Who gives a fuck about the orange juice?” He complained. A few people snickered, Armin and I included. I had to try so hard not to laugh my ass off. He had such a fucking good point. Of course Eren was the only one who did laugh aloud, earning a frown from the bartender.

“Adding the orange juice is what makes it a cocktail, sir.”

The angry looking man just grunted, filling most of the glass with wine and only adding a couple of drops of orange juice. Oh well. Can’t complain, there was at least some oj in there.

Eventually I got the bottles after watching Armin nearly fill the glass to the brim. Obviously his contained more wine than orange juice too, something I realised everyone was doing. Cheaters. They just wanted more booze. I decided to join them anyway. Why the hell not? More booze means more drunk.

Only after pouring in my drinks did I realise I had to pass them onto the freckled boy. _Oh_. Oh god. I quickly and quietly pushed the bottles to his side, grunting to let him know he was allowed to use them. I only allowed myself to look at him full on then. _And dear lord._

Oh. Oh holy fucking shit. It was the first time he looked at me. The first time our eyes finally met. Oh heavens. Bless you for giving me such a fucking beaut. Thank you, god. For the first time I could tell what colour his eyes were, a perfect mixture of amber and brown. I noticed that, yes, oh holy fuck, his cheeks were covered in sprinkles of freckles and the shape of his square jaw was so insanely hot that I nearly melted into a pool of drool in that moment.

As quickly as his eyes found mine, they left. He let out a really small squeaky thank you and took them in hand. He must have been shy. My heart leaped at the thought! _A shy boy_. . Fucking hell yeah! Shy meant I could make him blush. But I quickly shooed that idea out of my head. Now wasn’t the time to pop a boner at the simple thought of the beauty with bright red flushed cheeks.

I watched him closely pour his drinks. He was good and accurate. Far better than any of us, fucking hell. I had to smirk. I felt like it was a challenge, almost. Not that he was challenging me, but I wanted to show him anyway that I could be just as good and probably better at making cocktails. Even if he didn’t noticed, it’d still be satisfying.

Once everyone had their glasses filled, the bartender announced, “feel free to drink as we go, or save them to the end.”

Of course nearly everyone had cheered and took a sip of the first cocktail we made. Surprisingly enough it tasted really good. The oj and choice of wine went really well together.

“This is delicious! I might order it next time,” Armin beamed, gulping it down even faster than me. It was pretty good. I’m not a wine fan. Heck, I hate wine. But the oj had made it that much better. Holy damn, I might grow to like wine if it tasted like this all the time.

“Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, the next one is the classic margarita-”

Eld went on to explain what part of it was sour (lime juice. Like that takes a mad scientist to figure that out, ha!) How many portions of tequila and some unknown liquor that smelt like oranges needed to be placed into the shaker. Once the same thing as before happened, you know, the alcohol went around the table, we all went away at shaking the mixture with the ice in the shaker.

The margarita I made turned out damn good. Like hell good. It was probably a little too sour for my own taste, but still hell good. Only reason why I liked it so much was because there was almost nothing watering it down. We got quite a big glass for this one and the only thing to dull the alcohol was the lime juice. Score on the booze!

“Next one, the famous pina colada,” Eld announced as he placed the rum (I think it was rum?) and other ingredients on the table ends. A few cheers were called. I had to admit, I was fucking excited to finally learn this one too. I don’t care how many people thought pina coldas were for girls only, they were hell fucking good for just about anyone in my opinion.

“Of course, we can’t make it exactly how it’s made traditionally with the blender for this class. So instead we’ll fill the shakers with crushed ice. This means, ladies and gentlemen, that you’ll need to use some muscle and shake it up.” He concluded. A few cheers from some ladies on the far right end squealed and it was amusing enough to make me laugh.

When the whole table finally had all their ingredients in the shakers, the bartender told us to start shaking vigorously.

This is the part where I finally announce once utterly fucking more that I have the _worst_ luck on earth. Or perhaps, even the fucking universe. _But for once_. For bloody once in my life, the unfortunate luck turned out to be perfectly fine. Actually, more than fine.

If you haven’t guessed yet what happens next, then you really haven’t paid attention to when I said we began _shaking the shakers_. Because this is where I finally and officially ‘meet’ the one and the only, Mr. Freckles. This was the moment that literally changed the entirety of my holiday. This was it. The true beginning of Mr. Freckles and me.

The shaker had gotten wet from all the ice inside it and even though there was air-con everywhere on this ship, it still did not stop the cylinder from forming.... condensation? Or maybe that was just my sweaty hands. I don’t even fucking care because I am damn happy that the shaker did the one thing I would have hated on a normal day, but didn’t at this particular moment.

The shaker shot right out of my hands and straight into the freckled boy’s own shaker. He had at the time been facing more towards whoever the hell was sitting next to him than the counter. He was also laughing his ass off whilst his elbow rested on the counter with his shaker in hand. But since I so happened to have lost my grip, the shaker flew straight into his own shaker.

Coincidence? Maybe. Luck? Fucking hell yeah!

My shaker crashed into his and he let out a yelp as both of the shakers fell onto the counter top in front of him. Luckily neither burst open. May I repeat? _Fucking hell yeah_!

He immediately shifted towards me and furrowed his brows in confusion. Man.... that look he gave me. It was fucking adorable. _Hell fucking yeah_. I could get used to seeing more of it.

“Ah! Sorry!” I quickly played off. “It slipped right out of my hands.” Crap! It sounded so lame!! Why couldn’t I play it cool!? Why was my voice shuddering!? I wanted to cuss under my breath as I felt my face going red. Which, mind you, I highly doubted he could see because it was already fucking red from the sunburn I had received yet again that day.

“It’s alright. They’re really slippery, huh?” He finally spoke, sending me a beaming smile that went up to his eyes.

I was gobsmacked! He finally. He-

 _Oh._ Oh fuck no. Back the fuck up.

He.... I gulped as the world suddenly slowed right down. My mouth suddenly felt so dry even though I had chugged down two drinks prior to this.

He sounded like a... _No_ , no, no. Please. Anything but that _accent_. Please!

“Ha, yeah! It’s so hard to grip them, you know?” I quickly forced out. He just giggled, nodded and picked up our shakers.

“I’m not too sure which one is yours, but here you go,” he handed me one of the shakers. _Oh lord, that fucking accent_. He really was a sheepshagger! Oh no! No, no, no!!! Hell fucking no! I pushed my thoughts aside as I reached for the shaker. I wanted to pull away instantly in surprise as I felt the tips of my fingers brush his, but I bit my tongue and took it gingerly as possible.

“Thanks...” I mumbled. Seriously! What was up with me!? Why all the sudden when I finally got the chance to talk to him I became a mess!? Where the fuck did that total stud, Jean Kirstein, go to!?

“That was hilarious! What a nice save!” Armin had budged in, leaning over the counter and looking over the two of us.

Oh Armin. Thank heavens. Thank fucking heavens for Armin Arlert. Thank you for the save. Bless you brilliant saint. (Actually, I take that back. He’s far from a saint.)

“It was! What an amazing coincidence,” the freckled boy beamed, leaning forward onto the counter to get a better view of Armin.

“So how are you enjoying the cocktail class so far?” Armin had asked quickly, giving off one of his most inviting smiles.

I leaned backwards from the bar stool, just so they could converse better. I didn’t even fucking care at this point that Armin was the one taking the lead. I was just happy that I could finally hear Mr. Freckles talk.  Even if his accent was cringe-worthy as fuck. God, a sheepshagger of all kinds of people!

As I leaned back, a figure caught my right eye. Ah. It was that awkward lanky boy. He was eyeing me anxiously. I swear he was sweating heavily again. What was even up with this guy!? Did he think that I was going to threaten him or something? Maybe kidnap him? It’s not like I’ve been looking for him intentionally. He’s just easier to spot than the freckled boy. It doesn’t that he’s taller than most of the damn people on this ship. Perhaps the most awkward one too.

Obviously I paid too much attention to him than how far I was leaning back because suddenly, I swear to god, my heart stopped for a second and before I even fucking knew it (I swear, I am so unlucky. But at the same time, so, so very lucky!) I was on the fucking ground, wheezing

“Jean!” Armin yelped. He quickly turned, not even bothering to help me up. “Are you okay!?” He asked, worry written all over his face.

I wheezed some more, very certain that most of the air was knocked out of my lungs. I swear, I sounded like a fucking wheezing smoker in that instant. How unattractive and embarrassing.

I just waved my hand in front of my face and nodded as I knew my voice would crack if I spoke. At first I was mad that Armin didn’t help me up. But as soon as I was about to get up, I found a hand offered instead. And guess what.

Guess fucking what.

It was his hand. Freckled boy’s hand.

“Need a hand?” He offered. Oh lord. That accent. As much as I wanted to cringe and run miles away, I couldn’t. That face. The tone of his voice. The sweet look of worry he gave me. It was enough to keep me there and accept the fact that he was a sheepshagger. Even enough to accept the fact that I had fallen head-over-heels with someone from a country that had more sheep than people that lived in the country. It was enough to accept that I was going to like him no matter how his R’s rolled and the way he would no doubt pronounce mundane things like Fish and Chips.

I quirked a smile, nodded and grabbed onto his hand firmly. It was slightly sweaty but warm and smooth. Really smooth. It only made me think that he’d never went outside and played during the summer. What, with his untanned skin, his smooth hands and natural freckled face... Of course he wasn’t an outdoor kid. Of course he wasn’t living in Aus or within such extreme heat waves.

He finally pulled me up and allowed me to gather my bearings as he picked up the bar stool, all the while still holding onto my hand for balance. I sat down eventually, finally letting go of his hand. Before I could say thank you, he chimed, “had too much to drink already?”

I just chuckled sheepishly, rubbing my hand against the smaller hairs at the back of my head. “Maybe,” I agreed.

The bartender cleared his voice and I was suddenly reminded that I wasn’t in a world with just the freckled boy and me. We had a class waiting for us to get back to making the final two cocktails, after all.

The bartender told us to take off the lids, pour the drinks into the glasses, and showed us how to finish them off with some fancy shit like pineapples and everything.

As I poured mine, I realised that the shaker I got handed was indeed not mine. The drink that came out was perfect in colour and foam. I was almost (okay, maybe a little) felt guilty for taking his by accident. He had poured all the right measurements and everything. Man. I ain’t gonna’ lie. He was almost a pro at this! Surely he knew exactly what he was doing!

“Looks like I got yours,” I spoke, elbowing into his arm. He looked towards me and laughed.

“Yeah! That’s alright though. I hope you like it,” he smiled, turning his gaze back to the drink in front of him. It wasn’t too bad. It actually looked pretty good. Maybe a touch more yellow than normal but damn, I did a fine job!

“What the fuck! Why does mine look like fucking man milk?” We heard a loud complaint. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Of course it was that short, angry looking man again. This time Eren was laughing at full volume.

“That’s legend! Man milk! Ha!” He sputtered. It earned him a smirk from the guy that was definitely  borderline creepy.

“Did you hear that, Jean? Man milk! Haven’t heard that one before!” Eren laughed, sending me one of his giant shit-eating grins. I was a bit stumped as to what to reply, but ended up replying with, “like you’d know Jaeger. I didn’t know you had balls.”

Eren was about to retort and by the looks of that frown, it was going to be offensive, but Armin interrupted.

“Guys, please.” Armin groaned, shaking his head.

I heard a chuckle next to me and quickly brought my attention back to the person at hand. The real main reason why I was even here, making cocktails (and getting pretty tipsy)

“You’ve got pretty lively friends,” he confessed, taking a sip of his drink. “Ah! This pina colada is delicious by the way,” he complimented.

“Thanks, glad you like it,” I awkwardly nodded as I replied. “But fuck no. Try spending a day with a dipshit like that and you’ll be bickering too.”

He seemed to furrow his brows at that and stated, “well that’s not very nice, even as friends.”

“Trust me. I don’t even know why I asked them to come along. This is the reason why I’m sitting in the middle,” Armin quickly interrupted. I couldn’t help but note the lightness in his voice. It reminded me of the tone he used at parties or when he was trying to get people to talk to him. I guess he must have noticed the shyness in the freckled boy too. Or maybe he just wanted to lighten the words I had said about the shit-stain.

The freckled boy seemed to have found that hilarious as he beamed his iconic (man, I was getting fucking addicted to it already) smile and laughed.

“Fair enough. You have to make sure the people you go on holiday with will get along,” he still smiled, taking another sip of his pina colada. Or, should I say, _my pina colada_. And god... I tried so hard not stare as he sucked on that straw.

I was about to reply something sarcastic but Eld, the bartender fucking interrupted me.

“Ladies and gentlemen, for the last one, we’ll end on a good fresh and fruity one! Fruit Tingle. With sugar around the rim of the glass, it brings sweetness to the cherry brandy.”

The fruit tingle was as easy as the first one. All we had to do was add two types of alcohol (tequila and cherry brandy apparently) with fizzy lemonade in a glass. I shit you not, that was all.

But, this time when I was finished with the bottles and had to pass it on to the freckled boy, I actually said something rather than pushed it along. Because you know... we finally ‘broke the ice’ or whatever the fuck they called it.

“Here you go,” I handed it over to him.

“Thank you,” he smiled. I couldn’t help but watch him intently as he measured out the alcohol. Watching him full on now, I realised that he was really good at measuring out the correct amounts. He didn’t do want any of us fuckers did (most of the time anyway) by adding more booze than necessary.

“That concludes the cocktail lesson. Feel free to hang around. I’m open for any more questions,” Eld closed off the class. A couple of people took hold of their finished cocktails and walked off, but quite a few people stuck around. Of course I didn’t really care because all I could was still stare at the freckled boy as he looked over his final cocktail.

Armin had obviously noticed me staring and when I felt him bump my shoulder, I quickly turned to look at him. He wiggled his eyebrows and I honestly had not a fucking clue what he was meaning by it. So, I decided to give him a thumb up for, yay, I finally fucking spoke to the freckled boy.

“Come on, start up a conversation,” Armin had whispered in my ear when he leaned into me. Right. Now I got it. So that’s why he wiggled his eyebrows at me. He could have been more obvious, god.

“So... What did you do today?” I asked, leaning towards the freckled boy as he eyed his cocktail. His head shot up as he sent me an uneasy smile. I swear I heard Armin snort at the awkward look I received. I was so fucking tempted to turn to him and knock him on the head for being such a blond turd.

“Did you get off to see Port Douglas?” Armin had clarified, leaning over me and the counter top. The freckled boy’s light brown eyes seemed to have sparkled at that and only then did I realise how fucking stupid my question was. God! What was even fucking wrong with me? Why couldn’t I talk to him properly?

“Of course! It was really beautiful,” he recalled and took a sip of the cocktail. I tried not to laugh as his face scrunched up just a little from the taste. I guess he wasn’t too fond of cherry brandy.

“Did you do any tours?” Armin pressed.

“Ah, yes! We did the isle tour.”

“How the fuck aren’t you sunburnt?” I had to ask. He did not have a single ounce redness on his skin. (Apart from his nose) There was no way in hell that he could not have gotten burnt from how fucking hot the sun was today.

“I guess I just have really good sunscreen?” He giggled. Holy fucking shit that was so cute. He even used the word ‘sunscreen.’ Ah man. I was going to have fun with that sheepshagger talk.

“Was that one good? We ended up snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef,” Armin continued, obviously ignoring my comments. Damn you, blondie. I was just trying to see if he had any good humour, god.

“It was absolutely beautiful. The sand in Australia is so much better than we have over in New Zealand,” he replied cheerfully. “Oh, we did snorkelling too!”

“Yeah, snorkelling was the best part of our trip. Too bad we didn’t find Nemo or Dory,” I quickly added. Both Armin and the freckled boy laughed at that.

“We had no luck either. Not a single Marlin in sight either,” he chuckled. Hey, at least he was actually going along with my joke. That’s a good start!

“You say the sand is different here. How so?” Armin was nearly pushing me off the bar stool as he leant even more, trying to get a closer look. Of course Armin would jump at the chance for anything fucking nerdy or knowledgeable.

“Well, in New Zealand you either have beaches with black sand or white beaches that are covered with shells. So, it’s really cool to feel the soft sand here.” God, the beaches sounded fucking terrible. At least I knew what he meant by black sand beaches. Armin had already yabbered my fucking ear off about that during high school.

“That is so cool! I’ve read lots about the black sand beaches NZ has. Actually, I’m hoping to visit one while we’re in-” Armin was interrupted when that lanky bloke had tapped the freckled boy’s shoulder. I guess we had lost track of time and apparently spoke much longer than we thought we had.

“We’re going now,” he said. Holy fucking shit. His voice. It wasn’t exactly what I expected from such an awkward lanky dude. Honestly, I thought it would have been a hell of lot quieter and a hell of a lot less accent to it. But shit no. It had sheepshagger written all fucking over it. Worse than the freckled boy.

The freckled boy looked up and nodded sadly. Of course I did not miss the look the awkward lanky bloke gave me. I swear to god he shuddered when he saw I was the one who the freckled boy was talking to. He went from barely sweating to instant bucket loads in less than a fucking second.

“Well, I should get going. It was nice meeting you two,” he smiled as he held out his right hand. What a classy bloke. Holy shit. Did I hit the jackpot on this? Armin quickly grabbed it and shook it and then I was next. I ain’t going to lie. The whole time my heart was beating so fucking fast which only meant my hands were sweaty as hell. I almost wanted to refuse to shake his hand out of embarrassment. Shit.

I ended up shaking it anyway and sent him the best charming smile I could muster, even though I was shitting my own pants. But not nearly as bad at the lanky bloke.

“See ya’ around, you reckon?” I quickly added.

He sent me an equally charming smile. “Sure.”

Before I could even ask for his name, or even what floor he was staying on, he was getting up and walking away. I don’t know why I didn’t yell after him, especially after all the stalking I did to meet him in the first place. Maybe I just knew somewhere inside of me that we’d run into each other again after this first chat. I found myself staring after him longingly. The lanky bloke had looked over his shoulder and visibly shuddered when he met my eyes. To tell you the truth, I was still happy as fuck.

Armin was the first to break the silence once the freckled boy and his mates were gone. He first started off chuckling and somehow managed to fall into a full fucking laugh. Along the way I joined in, not too sure what exactly he was laughing at or why.

“He is a fucking sheepshagger,” I somehow blurted out in the midst of laughter. Pretty sure I sobbed at the same time. Armin’s laugh calmed down as he finally wiped the tears away from his eyes after I spoke.

“By the way, where the fuck is Jaeger?” I questioned, noticing that it’d been oddly quiet minus some people from the class that were still sitting around the table. Surprisingly enough when I looked beside Armin I found not a single shit-stain in sight.

“That’s why I’m laughing,” Armin finally spoke, breathing heavily. “When I first turned around to talk to your eye-candy, he started talking to that angry looking man.”

I understood almost immediately and was hit by the biggest tidal wave. All the sudden my laugh escalated instantly. “You don’t mean... But Eren isn’t....”

This was a big moment. We never spoke seriously of Eren’s love life. But the fact that he had probably walked off with some creepy looking man who I swear to god was probably gay (hey, I’ve had my fair shares of gay clubs and these were often the kinds of men that were in some of them) was too serious to miss up on. But this was Jaeger we were talking about. He was far from anything gay. He was straighter than a fucking road cone. Then again... He was childhood friends with Armin who was open, right from the start, about his sexuality. I decided that it was too far-fetched for him to grab the angry-looking man’s attention and assumed that he just got into trouble because of his usual ego and loud mouth. They both seemed to have that in common at least. Maybe the shit-stain said something wrong and the agro man-.

“Who knows Jean, who knows,” he finally replied.

Eventually we walked away from the bar and went out to find the other three. It wasn’t surprising at all to find them on deck 12; drinking like fucking animals with all the other drunk idiots. Mikasa was laughing along with them but when we finally got close to talk to them, it was obvious that she was the only sober one as usual.

Armin told us he was too tired to party and that he was going to head back to the cabin for a good sleep.  As much as I wanted to stay above and drink myself fucking silly like the match made in heaven, I decided that sleep would probably be the best option for my sunburnt skin and aching muscles. Too much happened in one single day and the relief of finally meeting the freckled boy, the tiredness seemed to have hit me in full.

Mikasa decided to join us as it was obvious that the match made in heaven were going to be at it like rabbits again tonight. I honestly could not blame her for wanting to sleep in our cabin that night. Armin took Connie’s bed this time (rather than sharing with Mikasa) and Mikasa took his.

“Where’s Eren?” She asked once she was in bed. I laughed at that. It took her a while to realise considering she was normally quite clued up on Eren’s whereabouts.

“Who knows. Last time I saw him he was talking to this guy at the cocktail class,” Armin explained after yawning. The odd thing was that she didn’t reply at that. She just hummed and turned to her side.

It was a fucking great way to end a long, tiring day. No Jaeger or baldy snores to keep me awake. Just the gentle breathing of two soundless sleepers and the gentle rocking of the ship. I couldn’t forget the delicious cocktails settling in my stomach to add to the ultimate relaxation. Especially that one pina colada. My mind raced back to all the faces the freckled boy had made while we spoke. He was just such a fucking beaut. I decided it didn’t matter that I didn’t catch his name because I somehow knew, the next time I found him, I’d find it out. Maybe I’d learn a whole lot more too. Maybe I’ll finally be able to hold a normal conversation.

It would have been an amazing night if it wasn’t for the fact that I woke up at who knows what godly fucking hour it was to find someone crawling into my bed with a fucking awful beer breath. The only problem was that I was too fucking tired to even kick them off.

 

-

 

The next day was a Tuesday (January 7th) and I was lucky enough to wake up on my own to a dark room. But, I wasn’t as fucking lucky enough that by the time I turned and when remembered that someone had crawled into my bed the previous night. I realised that the fucking shit-stain was sleeping in my bed and right fucking up close to me. God. What the fucking hell!?

I quickly shoved him off with all my might which meant he screamed when he fell on the floor.

“What the fuck was that for!?” He yelled. Armin and Mikasa both woke up from the sudden noise we made and we were both given annoyed looks.

“You were sleeping in my bed, Jaeger! Hadn’t I told you not to?” I hissed back. Eren just groaned as he laid on the ground.

“Sorry, I was too tired to get the ladder last night,” he explained. What fucking ever. Hell that was a lame as excuse. Far too lazy too. But I was kind enough to let it go, especially after I realised he was still dressed in the previous night’s clothes.

“Where were you last night, Eren?” Armin asked once he made it down from Connie’s top bunk. Eren just shrugged and before he could even reply the alarm blondie had set went off. Not going to lie, I was a little bitter that Eren never answered the question.

The alarm was set for eleven thirty in the morning, so that we could get ready for the day. I had tried talking Armin into setting it earlier so that we could go eat those god-like pastries for breakfast. But he had refused and told me that we were meeting that crazy woman, Hanji, and her friends at twelve in the buffet for lunch. I guess it would have been pointless to get breakfast at ten. At least we got a long sleep out of it.

Mikasa had excused herself to her cabin while we got ourselves ready. I wasn’t really looking forward to the lunch since I already knew that I’d be sitting there bored as shit while Armin would yabber to the woman about some god damn nerdy stuff. Jaeger wasn’t exactly any better, but at least Mikasa would be a good way to pass time. I just hoped to god that Hanji’s friends weren’t as fucking eccentric as her.

We met Mikasa in the hallways, who had said that the rabbits would be sleeping longer and were excusing themselves from lunch, and quickly headed to Deck 12 and into the buffet. Things were going swell until we heard her. We fucking heard (rather than saw) her scream the greeting. Yeah… She was generally that loud. I’m surprised we didn’t lose a bit of hearing while on the boat with her yesterday.

“G’day!” She screeched, waving her hand frantically to get our attention. Honestly, I just wanted to fucking hide. The huge ass guy who stood next to her (Mike, I think his name was?) didn’t even react to her other than giving her one annoyed glance.

As Armin waved back to acknowledge we’d seen her, two other people had moved to stand beside her and I swear. I fucking swear at that moment it felt like hell went loose… Or, more like things just got majorly exciting….

Why? Why, you may ask? Because not only was that man with a stick shoved up his ass (Erwin, I think his name was) but also that short (holy shit was he fucking short) agro man from the cocktail class were standing next to her.

I could see Armin shorten his stride as he cussed under his breath. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn he actually fucking swore one _terrible_ word. Seriously. But out of the two, I think the shit-stain’s expression was the most comical.

It was the face of fucking horror. I sure as fucking hell wanted to know why. I extremely disappointed that both of their faces of shock almost instantly changed into beaming smiles within a split second. I think Mikasa was the only one who did not know what the fuck was going on between any of this. Poor Mikasa. She’s going to miss out on a hell lot of fun.

“Good to see you again! Thank you for joining us for lunch... Armin?” Hanji smiled, almost instantly taking hold of Armin’s hand and shaking it.

“Oh no, thank you for inviting us,” Armin squeaked a reply. I couldn’t help but notice the faint blush on his pale face. This was fucking hilarious. No, this was fucking entertaining!

Not only was the crazy woman friends with the guy Armin had the fucking hots for. But she was even fucking friends with the agro looking man that the shit-stain apparently went off with the previous night (and came back possibly fucking drunk.) This was too good to be true. Oh my fucking god. It took me so much will power not to laugh at either of my mate’s luck. ‘Bout time they experienced some god-awful luck!

“Ah, so you seem to have met my good friend,” the tall blond man, Erwin, had spoken. He grabbed hold of Armin’s hand to shake. Again, Armin just squeaked and this time a full blush found his face. Oh, poor, poor flustered blondie.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Hanji questioned excitedly.

“We do. We actually met two days ago,” Erwin explained. Can I just say that he was fucking hot up close. Like the first time we had ran into him, I only had eyes for the freckled boy. Second time I ever saw him, it had been dark with strobe lights all around. This was the first time I _really_ got to actually see him. The polo shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide the bulging biceps he had going on. The blond hair was combed neatly to the side of his face, his bright blue eyes shone so bright that it was incredibly inviting. Holy damn. If I didn’t know any better, Armin had hit a better jackpot than me.

Not that the freckled boy wasn’t as hot as this man... but you know... This man... I couldn’t even fucking describe him. Was he even real? How much plastic surgery did it cost him to get a face and body like that!? How the fuck has Big Brother not scouted this man yet!? How was this man not known as the doppelganger for Chris Evans!?

I had to peel my eyes off of him and Armin until they found their way to the short, black haired man. Damn, he was even shorter than me!

“You’re that guy from last night,” I broke the strange silence that fell upon us as we walked towards the buffet line. The short man turned to me and I swear to god the murderous look he gave me made me feel fucking chills.

“You’re that tool who fell off his chair,” he taunted. I noticed a slight accent to his voice (one that was different than the Aussie accents of Hanji, Erwin and Mike) that I couldn’t pick up. But that didn’t matter because the snarky reply he had given me was enough to boil my blood. At that moment, the shit-stain thought it’d be a great time to laugh at my fucking expensive. Damn you shithead!

“He can’t hold his own weight,” Eren teased. Damn you fucker!

“Like you’re the one to talk, ya’ dipshit. I wasn’t the one who crawled into someone else’s bed ‘cause he was too drunk to climb up a fucking ladder,” I smirked back. Yeah, that ought to fucking embarrass him.

“For your information, I was not _fucking_ drunk,” Eren growled, his cheeks faintly glowing red.

“Please stop fighting,” Mikasa interrupted me before I could even retort a reply.

I left it at that, even when a smug look fell on the short man’s face. I wasn’t too sure what that was from. Either it was from what I had said or from what the shit-stain mentioned. But I sure as hell knew that Eren was probably pissed off his face when he found his way our cabin that previous night.  No way would a sober Jaeger ever sleep on _my_ bed.

 

-

 

Sadly, lunch went without a hitch. As amusing as this entire situation was, nothing even remotely hilarious happened. Seriously. I was so fucking disappointed because I was really looking forward to the entertainment it would bring. It turned out that the short agro man was named Levi and that he was in fact not an Aussie. Apparently Hanji, Erwin and Mike went to high school together years ago and decided to stick together even after uni-days had long gone past. It gave me faith about my own group of friends, to be honest. Levi, on the other hand was a business partner Erwin met along the way and somehow became such good enough friends to spend a fucking month cruise together with. Obviously they had more history there as every time the blond-stud (hey that’s a good one!) spoke of their past, Levi would send him chilling stares.

I, of course did not miss every time Armin blushed or squirmed in his seat when the blond-stud looked at him. It was so fucking amusing. Armin had it bad. Maybe even worse than me. It was a little weird at first. It kind of gave me a kick of nostalgia and reminded me of our first couple of dates when both Armin and I were new to dating that we were both nervous wrecks. But, the blondie had so much experience under his belt now that I knew Armin wouldn’t mess up in any way. Armin was going to get the blond-stud whipped just as hard as he was. Well, once he got over his initial shy blushes.

On the other hand, Eren was talking nervously (I swear to god he sounded nervous. He even fucked up his sentences a few times) to Mikasa. Which left me bored as ever while three different conversations were going on around me. Food just seemed that much more important at the time and the only thing giving me attention. I already had given my hawk-like run through of the buffet room, just in case the freckled boy or his mates were hanging around. Of course with my luck, there wasn’t even a sweaty lanky boy in sight.

“I’m quite surprised you didn’t attend schoolies. I thought kids these days wouldn’t miss up on it,” the blond-stud spoke.

“I thought a cruise would be a better way to celebrate the end of school,” Armin explained.

“No shit,” I interrupted, throwing my left arm around Armin’s shoulders to just... you know... tempt the man. Hey, Armin was a good wingman for me the previous night. The least I could do was help the blondie out. I’ve heard somewhere that older guys liked a challenge, so I made to throw in an extra smirk. “Armin planned the whole thing.”

The blond-stud gave me a curious look and I swore I saw a challenge gleam in his eyes. Score! I got a reaction out of it. Armin just wormed his way out of my arm slowly.

“He’s just being modest. I did nothing, really,” Armin objected. The blond-stud seemed to have liked the fact that blondie was a bit of a nerd. So why was Armin trying to play it off that he didn’t do all the work? I couldn’t help but hear an underlining tone in his voice. I’ve known the blondie for a long time and I knew when he was trying to mean something an extra bit with just normal words. Okay, maybe I wasn’t that smart and couldn’t exactly understand what the underlining meaning was, but at least I noticed it was there. Unlike shit-stain who wouldn’t have even realised even though he had been friends with blondie since they were toddlers.

“I see,” the blond-stud replied. Obviously the meaning behind it flew right over my fucking head but not his. Glad he at least caught on.

That’s how the whole lunch was like. I ended up giving up on their conversation and rather concentrated on whatever Mikasa, the crazy woman and Jaeger was talking about. Fishes seemed a whole lot more interesting than words that had sexual undertones somewhere in them.

 

-

 

Eventually we split. Thank fucking god because holy shit was that was a bore. Armin and I decided to head to the secluded padded deck chairs area on our deck. Eren and Mikasa told us they were going to go for a dip in the pool and will eventually join us. Swimming was the last thing I wanted to do. My legs and arms were still killing me from all the swimming we did the previous day.

After some searching, we found two open deck chairs in a pretty crowded area. Who knew so many people had booked it? Every time we had been here before the place was usually somewhat empty. I found that both the two blonde mates the freckled boy had were there. The blonde chick had another book shoved up her nose while the blond bloke was on his stomach and snoring. God. Didn’t anyone even bother to wake him up? His snoring was so fucking loud. It was a shame that the freckled boy wasn’t there.

Armin and I had quickly rubbed on sunblock and laid down ourselves. If I had to be honest, this was one of the best spots on the cruise ship. Just being able to waste your day lying on a deck chair and in the sun. The rocking motion added to the relaxation and ah god, I could live on this ship happily for the rest of my life.

After god knows how long, I got thirsty from the sun and headed off to buy myself and Armin a fruit cocktail at the mini bar. Almighty, wasn’t I being a good friend? I won’t lie, I was already addicted to them. I bought the mango this time and holy shit. I didn’t care how much alcohol was in this heavenly good shit. One was not enough.

“Thanks,” Armin mumbled when I held out the drink. I took a seat again and lightly sipped my drink.

“So... What are you going to do next, Jean?” Armin asked. Of course I knew what he meant. What was I going to do next about the freckled boy? I didn’t even catch his name when we finally spoke and somehow I was _okay_ with that. But now, I had to start from the beginning again. Either I stalked his friends again or somehow try and find a way to figure out where his cabin was. Shit. Maybe I should have thought this whole fucking thing through.

“What’s your next move going to be?” I countered. I had nothing else to reply to him. I was stuck. I hope to god he knew that and prayed that the blondie was willing to still help me find him.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Armin mumbled. He took a thoughtful sip as I replied.

“That makes two of us.” And after a sigh, I continued. “At least Erwin seemed interested in you. The freckled boy looked like he was talking just to be kind.”

Armin snorted at that. “Jean, come on. You can’t assume that without at least talking to him twice.”

“I just hope he’s gay or at least bi. Cause fuck, I seriously just want him in my pants,” I jokingly teased. That was not true. After finally meeting the guy, I would be happy just to be friends. You know, in a platonic way. Even if I did still hope for a ‘lil something more. But, I would still be happy either way.

Armin immediately tilted his head and I could feel his eyebrows lifting even with his sunnies hiding them.

“You sure have a way with words, Jean. But, be serious about this.”

“How can I be? It took us more than two fucking days to find him and yet look how many times we’ve run into your blond-stud,” I growled. It was not fair! I wanted more lucky, damn it!

“My what?” Armin squeaked. “Ahh, never mind that. You know its fine. I’ll help you look again, even if it takes another couple of days. Even if we have to follow his friends again.”

“Thanks, man. Guess I really owe you big time for this,” I mumbled as I ran my left hand through my hair. Armin just sent me his brilliant smile and finished off the conversation with,

“It’s fine. I’m sure we’ll found him again.”

“Find who again?” We heard a soothing voice above our two deck chairs. That voice could only mean one thing. Fuck. How? This was so unfair. Screw my fucking life. God or karma or whatever the hell was ruling my life. Screw you all.

“Erwin!” Armin yelped, sitting up way too quickly to even be considered normal. Did Armin even realise how obvious he was being? I’m one hundred fucking percent sure the blond-stud knew Armin’s feelings already. I guess at that point I realised how stupid the action of me hanging my arm around his shoulder during lunch was. (And a waste of time) I bet he knew he already had Armin wrapped around him so effortlessly. Damn you, Chris Evans doppelganger.

“Just some guy,” I waved my hand, not even bothered to look up at the blond-stud as he casted a shadow from behind me.

“Jean has been trying to find this guy he saw on our second day,” Armin explained.

“Ah, I didn’t realise you were bowling from the pavilion end,” he mused. Whatever. What a fucking lie that was. I thought I made it quite clear when I hung my arm around Armin that I was interested in more than just girls.

 “No, just bi,” I retorted quickly. Erwin decided it was a good idea to join in on our conversation by taking a seat at the end of Armin’s deck chair as Armin sat cross-legged to offer more space. The Blond-stud looked at me head on, linking his fingers.

“Close enough,” he agreed, leaning closer towards, flashing a smirk not long after.

I only allowed myself just a split second to take an overview of him again. He sat there, leaning forward with his elbows against his thighs and lord have fucking mercy. Armin, you truly had scored too well. If that _crotch shot_ gave me any kind of impressions, it sure as hell told me that he was well endowed unlike the rest of us. I could only dream of imagining what a beaut body he had under those clothes.

“What does he look like?” He pried. I just scoffed at him and looked out to the sea in front of us. I didn’t do this very often as I should have. I’ll admit, seeing the waves in the distance made me just a little bit sick. Anyway, like I was going to share that personal information with him. But of course, I should have realised that he wasn’t just talking to me.

“He has freckles all over his cheeks and nose. I think black hair too?” Armin tried to describe him. God, blondie. Just stop trying. He’d never in a million fucking years find the heavenly freckled boy.

“Does he by any chance have three friends with him?” I almost instantly sat up at that. How the fuck did he know? How did this blond-stud know that!? Have he seen the freckled boy?

“He does. Two of them are right over there,” Armin nodded towards the two who were laying slightly to the right of us and two rows back.

“Then, indeed I have,” he replied smugly. I gapped at him like a fish, praying that he’d let us in on this.

“Where did you see them?” Armin asked in his kindest voice.

“They’re seated at the table next to us at dinner. Actually this explains why I came to find you. Hanji sent me to look for you and to invite you to dinner at the restaurant on Deck 7 at eight tonight,” he explained.

“The free sit and dine one?” Armin affirmed. Erwin simply nodded.

“Hell yeah, count me in!” I exclaimed. There was no way that I was going to miss another opportunity to see the freckled boy _and_ get a free fucking dinner out of it.

 “That’s great. I’ll send the news to Hanji,” he stood, starting to walk away.

“Wait, what type of clothes do we wear?” Armin quickly asked, obviously still a little dazed from his own thoughts. Not that I could blame him. The blond-stud had basically just asked him out on a date and god, I was so happy I was invited too, even if it would end up as a bore much like lunch.

“Smart casual? Make sure you bring the two from this afternoon too,” he waved his goodbye.

Armin and I quickly turned back in our deck chairs and immediately noticed Armin bringing his knees to his face. I couldn’t help but chuckle as his face went red under his sunnies as he breathed into his knees. I swore I could hear him chanting ‘god’ under his breath.

“What great progress. Not that you had any problems to begin with,” I teased. When he didn’t reply at first, I quickly added. “You’ll get in his pants for sure now.”

“You fruit loop!” Armin sputtered, face completely red. Even his small ears were shining bright red under his blond strands. “You’ll see the freckled boy too, you know!”

“I know,” I smiled.

Okay, so maybe the blond-stud wasn’t all the bad. Not only did he just hook us up to a fancy ass dinner, but he also just helped me in the right direction. This time, I swear to fucking god, I was not going to let the freckled boy out of my sight until I got his name.

_This time for sure._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay!!! Was that enjoyable!? Jean finally got to talk to Marco! From here on out, it’s going to be one hell of a climb! I can’t wait to write more of Jean and Marco interacting!
> 
> Thank you once more to my beta-readers, thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for being amazing and for motivating me!
> 
> I hope it’s not going too slow! But once I get the whole introductory part of Jean and Marco over with, it’ll be a smooth sail to love and giggles! Yahoooooo!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Grundies – underwear  
> Wanker - idiot  
> Calm your farm – calm down  
> Perve – (both a noun and a verb)... uhh... I think you all know by now  
> Booze - alcohol  
> Yabber – talk a lot  
> Uni – short for university  
> Big Brother – an Aussie reality game show. Just go and watch it. It’s great.  
> Sunnies - sunglasses  
> Bowl from the pavilion end – homosexual (man)  
> Fruit loop – fool
> 
> Jean’s nicknames so far:  
> Connie & Sasha – Match made in heaven, rabbits  
> Eren – shit-stain, shithead  
> Armin – blondie, blond turd  
> Marco – freckled boy.  
> Erwin – blond stud  
> Levi – agro man  
> Hanji – crazy woman


	5. Marco Bott

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the hits, kudos and bookmarks!!! And thank you to the ones who are still reading this! It makes me utterly happy that people are still interested!
> 
> Not much to say other than Jean will finally get to talk to Marco, properly. And that Erwin is going to be a good guy again for once, lol!
> 
> The nickname that Reiner gives Jean comes from the actual song. “Pina Colada Boy”  
> I don’t know, it just kind of stuck... 
> 
> Please bear with me while we get all the introductory parts of Jean and Marco over with. I promise things will get more exciting (tehe) once Jean finishes taking the baby steps.
> 
> As usual, sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise!

 

 

 

 

  
_Day 7_  
_In which Jean Kirstein finally learns Marco Bott’s name._

* * *

 

Eren and Mikasa did join us in the secluded area at the end, but only stayed for an hour before we went back indoors to get ready for the eight o’clock dinner. Somehow we spent an entire afternoon on those chairs and I swear that I fell asleep on them at some point too. This only meant that I was no doubt even more burnt. When was it ever going to end?

While Armin was in the shower, Jaeger and I went up to Deck 12 to tell the rabbits about our plans for the evening. We found them easily enough on deck chairs as Connie sipped on his drink and Sasha was scoffing down some dessert. Eyeing up the dessert, I realised that I was actually starving because I didn’t have anything to eat except for something at twelve, and the sight of her ice cream made my mouth _almost_ water. Okay, scratch that. My mouth was fucking watering.

“I saw that guy, by the way,” Connie said, just before Jaeger and I were about to head back down. “He was at the pool this afternoon with this really lanky looking bloke.”

“He does _not_ have a proper 90s hairstyle. But a good catch anyway,” Sasha quickly added. She gave me the thumbs up which probably meant she approved. Not that I needed her approval or anything.

“He does have one major t-shirt tan though,” Connie continued after rolling his eyes at Sasha’s antics. I almost had to laugh at that. Maybe it was wrong of me to assume that he’d be on a beach or isle without a t-shirt on like Aussies did all the time. Well, it made sense. Sheepshaggers didn’t see nearly as much sun as us, so of course he wouldn’t go shirtless that often.

“Introduce us sometime?” Sasha suggested. I just grunted a reply and walked away. Not yet. Maybe when I actually had his name and a good relationship going. But for now, hell no.

“Who’re they talking about?” The shit-stain asked. I just ignored his question as we walked down back to the cabin. The less Eren knew the better it was for all involved. I was just fucking thankful he was as thick-headed as he was at times and hadn’t caught on just yet. If he knew that the freckled boy was a sheepshagger, I knew it was going to be the end of me. He’d never let me live it down. Fuck!

Armin was pretty well dressed for a smart casual dinner. I had a feeling he’d go all out, but I did not expect to find what I did when we entered the cabin. Eren excused himself immediately to the shower which meant I had to go last and have the least amount of time to get ready. That damn fucking shithead! I was left trying my best not to stare at Armin too long as he sprayed cologne on his dress shirt. He wore a dark grey shirt and tight black pants, something that always looked good on him. Dark colours suited him best.

“Looking good, man,” I complimented. Armin quickly lifted his head and gave me a beaming smile.

“Thanks,” he said before fixing his hair again. This was too much. Way too much. Armin was going all out for this guy. Why was he trying so hard? He had the blond-stud in his grips already. He didn’t need to go all out like this. I guess he just wanted to show off a little. Not that I would blame him or anything, but daaamn Armin… If he’s not careful, he’ll have a thousand other guys after him too.

Thankfully Eren was quick enough to give me a decent amount of time to get ready too. Strangely, it was a little quiet between Armin and I, and I didn’t exactly understand it. I took a wild guess and thought that he probably felt awkward about the fact that he was getting ready for another man in front of me. But maybe I was being too shallow. Fuck, I was probably shallow for thinking that in the first place. Armin and I were long done and even though he dressed up as hot as that, and even though we joked around each other, nothing would ever happen again. It was still just a little awkward. Once I jumped into the shower though, my mind filled with freckles. The fact that I’d be seeing him again (and not fucking talking. Okay, fuck it, definitely talking. Even if I had to follow him) made my stomach do flips and backward rolls that it hasn’t done so in years.

I decided to dress as good as I did the previous night. Even if it was slightly hot, I went for an extremely dark navy blue long sleeve (that I rolled up of course. Or else I would have died from the fucking heat) dress shirt and dark jeans. I was looking fine, if I do say so myself. I even smirked at the thought that there was no way the freckled boy would miss out on me tonight.

 

-

 

It wasn’t hard to find the restaurant since it was at the back end of Deck 7. Man, what a sight we were fucking blessed with when we got there. When the blond-stud and agro man and you know what, the whole fucking group came into view; I sure as hell had to fight every muscle in my body not to react at the hot view. Damn. Holy fucking damn. Even the crazy woman looked good. Everyone cleaned up just as well as us. They probably just did a better job than us with more expensive clothes and shit.

Maybe I was just a little jealous of Armin. But I reminded myself about the freckled boy and how he should be in the restaurant already, or about to be seated too. I just hoped to god the freckled boy was as dressed up as these guys. It would be a glorious sight for sure!

“Evening!” Hanji waved and by some miracle (seriously, why my?) grabbed onto _my_ hand and pulled me along to the restaurant entrance where a waitress with light orange and short hair was waiting.

“We’re all here now, Petra!” She announced at that the waitress. She beamed a polite smile and guided us through to a table in an already busy dining area.

To say the food looked fucking good would be an understatement. Being starved for eight hours meant I was drooling on our way to the table we were to be seated at. God, I was going to enjoy this!

Just as we reached the table, I spotted the freckled boy. Hell yeah! True to the blond-stud’s words, there he and his mates were. Right at the table next to ours. Fuck yeah! I decided to take a seat on the other side, so I could get a straight on view of the freckled boy and the lanky bloke who sat next to him. Armin took a seat next to my right and Mikasa opted for my left. Not a bad choice, at least I could talk to Mikasa if this dragged on.

“Since we have new guests at the table, I’ll reintroduce myself. I’m Petra Ral and I’ll be your waitress for rest of the cruise, if you wish to dine at the restaurant. On the menu, you have the options to choose an entree, main and a dessert,” the waitress, Petra, instructed.

She carried on to talk about the specials and asked us to order our drinks. Erwin ordered two bottles of wine and some water for the table. Obviously that gave none of us any option to drink anything else since he was too kind to have bought the wine. Damn, I was really hoping to order a cocktail or beer especially since I fucking loathed wine. But hey, can’t go against the one who invited us. Armin would probably have disapproved. Actually, maybe Mikasa would have shot me a glare too if I did. Ha! That would’ve been hilarious!

“Do you eat here every night?” Armin asked once everyone fell into their own conversations. I opted to talk with Armin and the blond-stud who sat next to him. Mikasa was having an odd discussion with Hanji who sat next to Erwin and whatever it was; I preferred not to be part of it. That woman was still too eccentric for me. Until she’d eventually calmed her farm, I wasn’t too keen on talking to her.

“Yes, definitely. Since the first night, if you book a table, then you’ll have the same one every night at the same time,” Erwin explained. Ah! It makes sense! That’s why I never saw the freckled boy or his mates around dinner time in the buffet hall. They’ve been dining in as rich fucks every night instead. Okay, maybe rich was pushing it. This restaurant was the free one, so obviously they just preferred a classy seated dinner instead.

“It’s very nice in here,” Armin agreed. I did my own scan around the place. Blondie had a good point. The whole area was decorated in a fancy manner with white curtains and pink lightning. The tables all had white table clothes with candles in the centre. The few potted plants spread across the area did a pretty good job at giving some tables privacy. The booth seats even had leather couches! God, they sure as hell made it look better than the buffet.

At that my eyes found its way over to the freckled boy’s table. Luckily I had a good view of him between Hanji and Mike’s shoulders. Man, I seem to forget every day how hot he really was. He would be the fucking end of me, I swear. He looked breath-taking when he beamed that smile of his and-

Of course. Of fucking course the lanky bloke had to look up and catch me staring. So. Fucking. Awkward. God, why do you do this to me!? Why did he always catch me staring!? I was going to look away, but decided to keep staring intently into his eyes to see what he’d do next. Somehow I’ve grown to find it amusing when he started shitting in his pants. He ended up doing what I didn’t expect him to do. He leaned slightly to his left and obviously mumbled something to the freckled boy. The freckled boy’s head instantly shot up and our eyes met. _Oh my fucking god_. The lanky bloke told him. Fuck! I mean... yay!

The freckled boy seemed to have laughed and beamed me his brilliant smile. I could actually feel my stomach twirl when he did. Holy shit. I actually felt like a young teen who was experiencing their first crush. What was I even doing!? Was I _that_ attracted to him!? I ended up just slightly lifting my right hand (that I was leaning on originally) and gave him a small wave. He just nodded instead of waving back.

Before I was going to do anything else, Erwin had to ruin the special moment I was having. “Ah, so it was him.”

“Yeah, that’s him alright,” I sent my best charming smile at him. Erwin smirked as he leaned backwards to fold his arms.

“Such a beaut,” I sighed under my breath. Obviously I was a bit louder than I thought I was because Erwin chuckled and Armin cleared his throat.

“To be young and in love,” he mused.

“Fuck that. To be young and get laid,” I corrected. He let out a throaty laugh and I couldn’t help but feel smug. At least I could make him laugh. Score one to Jean Kirstein.

“I like the way your friend thinks, Armin,” the blond-stud joked. Armin just let out an awkward giggle as his cheeks brightened. “Do you think the same?”

Before Armin could reply, Petra came with the wine and water jugs in hand. She poured everyone a glass of wine and asked what we wanted to eat. I decided to go with what sounded the most filling, including a steak because I was so incredibly hungry. I could probably actually eat a horse. Probably.

Once she was done taking the orders, we were left to talk again. This time, to save Armin’s ass at answering a question he no doubt didn’t want to answer, I chipped in.

“How old are you anyway?”

Erwin lifted his eyebrows at my forwardness as he took a thoughtful sip of the wine. How he drank it without pulling a face was beyond me. I for one could not do that. Wine was not my first option of a drink. I almost hated the fact that I was being forced into drinking it tonight. Fuck. I was going to be so thirsty.

“That’s incredibly forward of you,” he countered. What was so bad about asking someone’s age? It was just a number, right? I was just curious. I sure as hell knew Armin probably wanted to know too.

“Don’t just gulp it down, you shitty brat,” we were interrupted by the agro man. It was pretty obvious to know what Jaeger had done. Obviously by the half empty glass of wine, he did exactly what the agro man told him not to do.

“Levi, it’s alright. Let the kid drink if he wants to,” Erwin waved his hand. Levi just grunted a reply and avoided looking at the Eren again.

I snorted, lifting my own glass as ‘elegantly’ as I could. The smell of it already made me want to fucking gag. But I bared it and took a sip. _Oh God._ That shit was so bitter. Shit fuck. How the hell was I going to drink this shit? After I grudgingly took another sip, I eyed Erwin again as he sent a charming smile at Armin. I tried not to watch the exchange Armin gave him, but decided to shove my nose into it anyway.

“You can’t be that old to avoid the question,” I accused. Seriously. With the looks he had, he sure as hell could not be that old. But then again, I was a useless guesser when it came to age.

He seemed to eye Armin carefully before finally answering. “Let’s just say late twenties, early thirties… Give or take.”

_Oh._

_Oh I see_. So that’s why. Well done, Armin. You just got your hands on a fucking rich and _hot_ bachelor. Wait no, more like a sugar daddy. Holy damn. I was so gobsmacked that I kept quiet and took a sip of my own wine again. I couldn’t miss the look Armin gave the blond-stud after he had announced his age. Knowing Armin as good as I did, I knew he’d ponder it for a while and weigh the pros and cons of whether or not it would be a healthy relationship. I was almost ready to tell him fuck age and classify it as a ‘ship fling’ and go all out. This wouldn’t happen again after we got off the ship, right? But knowing Armin, he’d never listen to my reasoning as it wasn’t rational enough. I guess I should have thought more before pressing for an answer. The whole age thing never crossed my mind when I thought of the freckled boy. What if he was older than me too? Not that he looked it, of course. It wouldn’t matter though, I decided.

So, I replied the only thing I could say to break the awkward silence that fell on us.

“That’s hot.” I definitely didn’t miss the way both Armin and the blond-stud furrowed their brows at my statement. I sure as hell did not miss how Mikasa seemed to cough at that moment. I had to smirk. So, Mikasa was listening in after all too. She was truly a guardian angel for Armin and Eren.

 

-

 

The dinner went as good as it could get, if being bored out of your fucking mind was your type of thing. It felt more like I was having dinner with a bunch of lunatics, agro people and flirters. The only thing that kept me sane through the painstakingly slow hour of dining was the freckled boy who I constantly looked up at.

He seemed especially happy as he sipped his own wine and chatted with his mates. Not gonnna’ lie, I was slightly jealous of the scene. It only made me more eager to finally learn his name and hold a proper, long conversation. I prayed to all high heavens to grant me that moment tonight.

“Let’s all go see that musical that’s showing at nine-thirty!” Hanji suggested as we finished our desserts. I looked over my watch to see that we still had twenty minutes to spare. Armin first eyed me for approval, which I nodded to instantly of course.

“Sounds great!” He chirped.

As though the words were to announce it was time to go, everyone stood and began saying their thank you and farewells to Petra. The shit-stain even earned a hug from her as she giggled. A sudden idea sprung to mind as I realised we’d walk past the freckled boy and his group. My only excuse was that it would maybe grab his attention…

.. But I should have known it wouldn’t go my way. That was just my fucking luck. Instead of lightly knocking my hip into the freckled boy’s shoulder as I walked past, I somehow fucking screwed up and knocked against the lanky dude. I cussed under my breath at my stupid aim and awkwardly peeked over my shoulder. His glare was almost hilarious, almost as much as the light dust of pink on his cheeks. Wrong bloke, sorry man!

“Would you care to dine with us again tomorrow night?” Erwin asked before we left the small reception area.

“How about it guys?” Armin turned to us. Mikasa shrugged her shoulders and Eren just gave him the biggest shit-eating grin. Of course he got approval all-round.

“Why not?” I muttered. Armin sent me a bright smile at that and nodded towards Erwin. Sure, for the sake that it’d do Armin good, why the hell not. I just hoped the blond-stud didn’t expect us to eat here every night. As great as the fancy seating and delicious food was, it by all means was nowhere near as much fun as the buffet. But for Armin, I’d do it. I’d miss up on the chance to stack my plate high.

I was a little disappointed that I had to leave the freckled boy and his mates behind. I had told myself to be dead set on following him that night and getting a name out of him. Yet, here was my ultimate plan for the evening screwed up once more. I must have sighed loudly.

“Don’t worry, they normally watch the shows too,” Erwin stated lowly as he walked past me in the hallway. I was about to call him out and ask how he knew, but decided against it as he matched his pace with Armin’s. That at least eased my mind a tiny bit. It meant I wouldn’t have to be disappointed anymore and that I could have another chance at seeing the freckled boy. Hell yeah!

 

-

 

Much to my surprise, the blond-stud had told the truth about the shows. The freckled boy and his mates were indeed watching the musical too.  We had decided to sit on the balcony floor (Deck 8) of the stage hall and obviously they had the same idea by sitting across the hall from us. This gave me an amazingly good view of not only the stage on Deck 7 but also of the freckled boy. At this distance, I was free to eye up as much as I pleased. _Damn_. He really wore those skinny leg jeans perfectly. Holy fuck. I could only imagine how good they looked on him up close.

I decided in a midst of sudden confidence that after the show I was going to follow him. I didn’t care what Armin and the others wanted to do. I was going to follow him even if he was going to go to his cabin for the night. I _had_ to talk to him. I needed a name at least. It didn’t fucking matter if he wasn’t gay or if he was a sheepshagger at this point. Or even if he had a really awkward friend who seemed to shit his pants when he caught me staring from across the hall. It did not fucking matter because tonight. Fucking tonight. I was going to go up to him and ask for his name and start the friendship I had been dying for. My patience was beginning to thin. I was desperate!

When the musical first started, I found it had to concentrate. It took me a while to get my eyes off the freckled boy and onto what was happening downstairs. From what I got out of it, I think it was about a female performer who wanted to join the circus. The dances and circus acts were pretty cool. There were bright and flashy costumes that glittered in the light’s beam. It was hard not to watch and be fascinated. The music was surprisingly catchy too. I knew for a fact that I’d be going to sleep that night with the song stuck in my head. Time felt like it creeped on the crazier the songs and acts became. It only made me more impatient for the show to end.

As soon as the lights turned on at the end, after all the applause were made and cheers were called, my eyes landed straight on the freckled boy. When he stood from his seat, I quickly turned towards Armin within a flash.

“I’m going to follow him,” I simply stated, standing as quickly as I could. I was about to run off in the direction they were headed with fucking hundreds of other people rushing towards the door, but was caught by my wrist.

“Jean...” Armin mumbled. I was about to explain to him my plan but was saved by Erwin.

“It’s fine, go on. I’ll stay with Armin.”

I decided that the blond-stud was indeed a good guy. Not only did he help me find the freckled boy, but he got Armin off my back so I could actually get something done on my own this time. Thank you, blond-stud. Thank fucking you.

“Don’t forget to use a franger!” I could have sworn he called after me jokingly. I ended up flashing him my middle finger as I rushed away. Pretty sure I heard more than one person laugh at my gesture. I didn’t even fucking care who heard. My mind was set on the freckled boy and I just had to find him.

But sadly for fucking me, Jean Kirstein, I lost sight of him for a split second when Erwin had spoken to me. I figured they wouldn’t have stayed on Deck 8 since there was shit all to do except for the casino. I did a quick scan through it, but found no one of interest. So I raced down the stairs to Deck 7 and started searching the small bars. The first one where the cocktail class was held was pounding with a mass of people, but they weren’t in sight at any of the chairs. That meant they were either at the following, bar that was much bigger, or the last one before the restaurant we ate at for dinner.

When I got to the second bar, it was crowded as fuck. There were people dancing on the makeshift dance floor. Just past the dance floor people were sitting around on the bar stools and high tables, and also the couch-like chairs while drinking and laughing. The lights were off with only green, blue and white strobe lights moving with the beat of the ear-aching drumming music. If I didn’t do a double take of the area, I would have missed them sitting by the bar. They were sitting on the bar stools around it, similar to how the cocktail class bar was placed. I pumped my fist at my chest in relief. Fuck yeah! Found them at last!

As I started towards them, I noticed just as the blonde chick stood up, the fucking lanky dude turned in his seat to face her and by some fucking miracle met my eyes. This was some fucked up fate, seriously! He seemed to visibly shudder and immediately leaned towards the freckled boy to probably announce that he saw me again. At this point, I seriously hoped the freckled boy didn’t think I was a stalker or anything. But maybe I had long-gone passed that point. Ah well, there was no turning back now. I quickly walked on, taking the way around the dance floor and through the crowded tables to the other side of the bar.

This was my only chance. I had to go up to him. He was less than two fucking metres (not that I was taking note or anything) away from me. I just had to go up and talk to him. I could do this. I, Jean Kirstein, was going to talk to the fucking freckled boy tonight!

With the small pep talk I gave myself, I walked around to their side of the bar and towards the empty bar stool next to him. When I got there, I noticed the blonde chick was gone and that the lanky dude was talking to the blond bloke which meant the freckled boy was facing the dance floor and leaning against the bar with his elbows.

I took a deep breath because let’s be honest here, my heart was racing so fucking fast. I was both nervous and excited at the same time and yet… confident enough to finally tap him on the shoulder.

His smile seemed to falter slightly as he turned his face towards me.

“G’day stranger,” I sent him the best charming smile I could muster. As soon as he recognised me, he gave me one of his iconic smiles in return.

“Oh, it’s you again! Hi!” He chuckled. “Or should I say Kia ora?” He seemed to tilt his head at the rhetorical question. I was about to burst into laughter from his cheesy greeting. The accent didn’t help my need to laugh.  But you know, maybe laughing would have helped me sulk away the fact that he was a sheepshagger with such an obvious accent and it was just something I would have to learn to love.

Instead of laughing, I just sent another smile at him and prayed to god that it didn’t seem awkward that I was standing there, trying to make conversation with him.

“Where’s your friends?” He asked when he noticed I was alone. I had to listen closely as I could because the music from the dance floor was fucking blasting.

“What?”

He laughed, asking again “Where’s your friend?” This time I could fully hear him. I couldn’t help but notice how he changed it from friends to only one. I’m assuming he meant Armin.

“He’s with someone else tonight,” I explained. The freckled boy nodded as a thoughtful look fell on his face.

Honest to god, I wasn’t too sure what the fuck I was meant to say. Which was the weirdest part out of this whole situation. Normally I knew how to smooth talk and lure people in. Like I said before, I knew how to flirt at parties and I was fucking good at it. Yet, there I was, not a single fucking clue on how to approach him or to even carry on the shameful conversation we were having. It was as if my heart and brain decided to quit for the day and say ‘fuck you Jean, you figure this shit out for yourself.’

“Have a seat?” He finally broke the silence, nodding towards the bar stool I was standing next to.

“Alright,” I mumbled, sitting down.

It was as if the bartender was watching me intently to see whether or not I was going to sit down because as soon as I did, he was there instantly.

“Would you like a drink, sir?” Hell fucking yes! I’d like a _strong_ drink. Maybe tequila would make this easier on me. No. I couldn’t do that. Fuck. I had to be sober as possible for this. I would make a fool out of myself otherwise.

“Pina colada,” I ended up saying as I gave him my card. Although I was keen for another heavenly good fruit cocktail. I thought it’d be hilariously ironic to get a pina colada. Since... you know... it was the pina colada’s fault that we ever even got talking in the first place.

“I’ll have one too, please,” he handed over his card too. It seemed not only was he kind, but he had good manners too. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d think of my awesomely _crass_ language. I guess I’d just have to tone it down in front of him if it turned him away.

“So.... How was your dinner?”  I tried to make idle chat as I waited for the drink.

“Supper was really good. Did you enjoy it too?” His eyes lit up. God. Who even uses the word supper these days?

“Real good. So lame they don’t serve as much as the buffet though.”

“I haven’t had supper yet at the buffet. Do they offer the same kinds of food?” He shifted in his seat at that, forcing a draft of his cologne to hit me in the process. It was both sweet and musky, almost good enough to get me drunk with lust. He smelt real good. Hella fucking good.

“Not really. It’s definitely not as fucking fancy as the restaurant, that’s for sure,” I finally replied as I cleared my mind. I swear to god he winced at the word I used. Okay, so that means I _would_ have to tone it down. Damn.

“Well, at least you enjoyed it. I’m going to guess that it was with all your friends?” He asked.

The bartender interrupted by handing back our cards and giving us the drinks. We both thanked him as he nodded, walking away to make more drinks. I was a little confused as to why the freckled boy would ask such a thing since the group I had dinner with were all vastly different in age and well… shouldn’t it have been obvious? But then I guess he’s never really seen me around with just our little gang. I’ve mostly just been running into the fucking lanky boy who was still sitting next to him. Was quite surprising that he wasn’t even looking at me or sweating his ass off.

“Oh nah. It’s just two of my mates met two of them in that group on the ship and somehow started something,” I explained.

“I see. The blond and the lively brown haired one?” Well, I sure as hell wouldn’t call shit-stain fucking lively, more like agro.

“The blond one and the brown haired ones from the cocktail class are my mates. But the others are the random people we met along the way,” I corrected. He seemed to nod at that and took a sip from his drink.

“Ah uh! Would you look at that, it’s the pina colada boy,” I heard before I saw the loud blond bloke tease. So that’s what he sounded like. It sure as hell was a lot different from the lanky bloke. His voice was loud and booming, while the lanky bloke was low and quite. What a stark contrast that was. He had placed his hand on the freckled boy’s shoulder and of course the lanky bloke stood next to him. The funniest thing was that the lanky bloke was sending me fucking death glares. Who could even take this bloke seriously?

“We’re going to Deck 12, wanna’ come?” The blonde bloke carried on.

The freckled boy just shook his head. “I’ll stay here for a while longer; you guys go on and have some fun.”

The blond bloke furrowed his eyebrows and gave me a quick overview while he warned. “Are you sure? If there’s any tr-”

“It’s fine. I’ll be okay,” the freckled boy politely waved off, patting his hand.

At first I found the exchange weird. But then I remembered that I was being a stalker the last couple of days. The lanky bloke probably told them constantly whenever he saw me staring. By the sounds of it, they probably thought I was a fucking creeper. Shit! Weren’t I off to a great start? What a great first impression I had given them in my desperate haze of finding Mr. Freckles.

The blond bloke grunted and turned around, grabbing hold of the lanky bloke’s hand and walked off into the masses of people on the dance floor. Of course I didn’t miss the awkward glare he gave me over his shoulder. God. He was so fucking sketchy of me. Hah! He seriously had every right to be too.

The freckled boy turned the other away again and faced the dancers as he rested his elbows on the counter top. I twisted to see what he was looking at, but didn’t find anything worthwhile. Instead, I found myself sneaking a few peeks of his face. Even though the area was dark with flashing lights, I could still see the sprinkles of freckles over his cheeks. God, they were so cute up close.

“It’s a good song,” I stated. He wasn’t saying anything and I was starting to freak out in my seat. He didn’t even acknowledge what I had said. In-fucking-stead he commented on something that totally. Like actually fucking totally threw me off. So much that I may have leapt off the chair and run for the hills if I wasn’t so eager to get his name. It served me right though. I did the damage, I had to be called out on my shit eventually.

“You know... I think you should stop staring at my friend. He’s been even more on edge than usual.”

“Hah?” I sputtered. What!? What!!!!? Where the hell did that come from!? My god-damn assumptions were right! The lanky bloke fucking told him and his friend every time! Oh god, he really did think I was a creeper stalker!

“I- What?” I stuttered again. This time I was becoming flustered and I even squirmed in my seat as he turned around to face the bar again.

“He’s been complaining that he can’t go anywhere without finding you staring at him,” he stated. A quick sigh left his mouth as he looked down, he carried on with, “for the record, he’s taken.”

“I.... Oh-my-god. No. Nooo, I haven’t been staring at him. I mean. I have been staring, but not... not _at_ him,” I replied frantically. Holy shit I was a mess. A giant fucking mess. I was trying so hard to save my own ass.

“What? Who were you looking at then?” He sounded almost like he didn’t believe me. The look he gave me was ridiculous too.

“Ah...You,” I whispered the confession. Actually, I breathed it more than whispered. A part of me wanted him to hear it but another part of me said ‘oh fucking please no. Not yet…’ I didn’t look up to see his reaction; instead I just rubbed the rim of my glass, waiting for a reply.

“In any case, he’ll be relieved when I tell him that you weren’t staring at him, that is,” a small voice finally found my way. This time I looked up and was met with a lovely, subtle pink cheeked boy. So pink, that his freckles was barely even showing now in the bad lightening. I was still so unsure if he really heard me or not, so I was opting for the latter.

“So he’s taken huh...” I asked lightly.

The freckled boy just laughed after he took a sip of his drink. “Yeah.”

“By the blonde chick?”

“Oh no!” He waved his hand frantically. “That would be Annie. But no, he’s um... He’s gay,” he lowly replied. I just grunted an approval.

“He’s with the blond guy, Reiner.”

Oh. Well actually... that made sense. Now that I look back on it. I didn’t exactly see them together a lot whenever I spotted the lanky bloke. But now that I thought about the dinner and at the show and how they sat together, it somehow made sense. The chick, Annie, was usually on Marco’s other side.

“That’s cool. And how about you? Uh.... Whatever your name is...?” My eyebrow rose in question.

“Marco. Marco Bott,” he spoke confidently, flashing his right hand at me as he turned my way.

“Nice to meet you, Marco. I’m Jean Kirstein,” I shook it in return with the best charming smile I could muster.

“Juhn?” He tried. I just shook my head with probably the most idiotic smile on my face. Of course sheepshaggers would have problems with my name.

“Jean. Spelt like the pair of jeans you’re wearing,” I helped him out. It wasn’t like I minded. The average person couldn’t get my name right. But it wasn’t like... Marco… would have ever have heard something like it before. I was going to add a pick up line that I normally say with my name to people who couldn’t get it right. But seeing as how he must have thought that I was a creep and god knows what else, I decided to leave it out. Also wow, that was the first time I had actually been able to name the guy. It felt so weird to no longer think of him as just ‘that freckled boy.’  

“Jean... huh?” He seemed to smile at that. My name sounded so sweet on his tongue that it made me very aware of the alcohol churning in my stomach.

“And... are you...?” I questioned again, lifting my eyebrows, trying to play it cool. What? Who could blame me? I was curious. If he was single, I had at least a good chance. Knowing that he already had gay friends made the whole deal even fucking easier.

“I’m single and you?”

It was as if the heavens had sent me a sign. A freckled boy with an angelic smile could potentially actually be my ship fling. Holy fucking god.

“Oh yeah. Single and ready to mingle,” I beamed my iconic slanted smile.

He seemed to have found that hilarious as he snorted out a laugh. He took a quick sip to hide the fact that he laughed at my answer.

“That’s cool. Any luck so far?”

“Maybe,” I replied whatever I could. It’s not like I could have told him straight out that the one I had my eyes on was him. I had to be subtle with these things. It wasn’t like I could just right up and there ask if he was gay. These things took time, as Armin once taught me. I had to warm him up to me. Whether it was about dating or sexual preferences.

“And you?” I finally asked.

He seemed to pause for a while and I swear I could see him nibbling at his bottom lip. God, he was so fucking cute. What was I even going to do with myself!?

“Well.... Let’s put it this way, there are some interesting people on this ship,” he answered vaguely. It wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for. It didn’t tell me anything about his sexuality and whether he was keen for a fuck, relationship or anything really. But hey. I could still try and play the game.

“What? You haven’t spotted any beauties yet?” I lightly teased. I couldn’t help but bump his shoulder a little with my hand.

“Beauties?” He furrowed his brows at that. Oh... right. He was a sheepshagger.... He wouldn’t understand a lot of Aussie slang. Damn. This made it a lot more annoying than it should have been. Why the fuck did he have to be one of them!? Why?

“You know, hot chicks... or blokes, if you swing that way,” I almost my crossed my fingers with the hand that was on my knee.

“Oh! Right,” he chuckled, looking back at his glass. “A few.”

Oh god. Why so fucking cryptic? That still didn’t even tell me if he was even remotely interested in me or dating! God! Was this done on purpose? Was it because I left too much of a creeper vibe!?

“A few, hah? But no one you’re keen to have a good time with?” Once the words left my mouth, I took a sip of the pina colada and ever so slightly leant closer to him.

He just gently shook his head before answering, “Not really.” And after a pause. “I didn’t come here for that. It’s more of an early birthday present,” he explained. I could have sworn he just ever so slightly leaned further away. Fuck! I was doing a horrible job!

“An early birthday present? What? From your ‘rents?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. I was surprised he even knew that word. If his ‘rents paid for this trip, then that only meant one thing…

“You’re an only child?” I assumed. Or his family could be fucking loaded. He looked up at that before giving me a gentle smile.

“Yeah! How about you?” He countered. I sent a toothy grin.

“Hell yeah. Thank god too. I wouldn’t be able to handle any dipshit siblings,” I slightly waved my drink at that before taking a long sip. He chuckled and drank his own.

“Well, that’s one thing we seem to have in common.”

For a split second I stumbled. I was almost close to choking on my drink like a dweeb when he said that. Was it wrong of me to assume that he was sending me mixed signals? He was so cryptic and yet, he completely acted oblivious the fact that I had hinted I was gay and trying to lamely flirt and get to know him. Actually, I think he fucking knew at this point and just maybe wasn’t interested in me? So... he was straight? Or was this because I was a creeper for stalking his friend? Or was he just incredibly shy when it came to this thing? I carried on sipping anyway, deciding to try again at the conversation we had before it became awkward.

I swear, for a split second I stumbled. I was almost close to choking on my drink like a dweeb when he said that. Was it wrong of me to assume that he was sending me mixed signals? He was so cryptic and yet, he completely acted oblivious the fact that I had hinted I was gay and trying to lamely flirt and get to know him. Actually, I think he fucking knew at this point and just maybe wasn’t interested in me? So... he was straight? Or was this because I was a creeper for stalking his friend? Or was he just incredibly shy when it came to this thing? I carried on sipping anyway, deciding to try again at the conversation we had before it became awkward.

“I for one came on here with my mates for a good holiday and a few good roots,” I confessed. I didn’t even care if he didn’t know what the word had meant. If he was a sheepshagger, he may have known, but who the fuck knew.

“That’s lovely. But, maybe not my friend, yeah?” He teased. I was so fucking surprised he even knew that word. Actually, I was even more fucking surprised that he did catch on. So he knew my status. He knew what I was after, surely… he was just playing hard to get, right? Or was it the shyness? Or… Oh god, I was so confused.  This would be a hell of a lot easier now though, knowing he has it in him to joke about this kind of thing. I ended up laughing at his statement while he sent me a confused look.

“No way, man. Your friend is way too fucking awkward,” I answered once I calmed down.

“Don’t be so mean. Bertl is a nice guy, honestly,” he quickly retorted. Ah. So that’s what the lanky bloke’s name was. Bertl. God. Who the fuck named his mates? They were the weirdest names I’ve heard in my life. Although, I guess Annie wasn’t that weird for a name. Seemed like the blonde chick was the only normal friend he had.

“But, I don’t think your his type though,” he continued. I grunted in agreement, finishing off my pina colada.

“Why’s that?” I asked, leaning closer to him again. By now the two glasses of wine and glass of pina colada was settling nicely in my stomach and making me feel a hell of lot calmer around the freckled bo- I mean Marco. Yes. Marco, right? But I should have known it wouldn’t help.

“Oh... that’s because... erm.. Well...” He stuttered, this time not leaning away from me. Instead he hid his face as he finished off his drink too.

“Would you like another, sir?” The bartender sure as fucking hell picked the right time to interrupt. I was about pry into what the freckled boy, I mean Marco, was going to say. But god. I decided that maybe another pina colada would be a good idea. It would only help my heart beat calm down. Maybe it’d stop the sweating in my palms too.

 

“Yeah,” I gave him my card. The frec-god! I mean Marco, handed him his card too without saying word. I guess that was an acknowledgment that the conversation was far from over. At least he was keen to stay a while longer.

“How did you realise you were gay, anyway?” He asked quietly, still facing downwards. For a minute I had to double check the question he had asked. It was the second time he blew me off my fucking stride. But, why the sudden question? How the hell did we even go from point A to asking me how the fuck I was gay. Wasn’t that a little too intrusive? Why would you ask a stranger that sort of question? Even worse, a stranger that was trying to very badly flirt and chat.

“...Why?” I questioned wearily, shifting in my seat a little. The bar stool was starting to hurt my ass. We must have been sitting at the bar for a long time if I was already becoming uncomfortable. This only meant one thing; I was going to be sore in the morning.

“J-just curious,” he stuttered, finally looking up at me and sending me a shy smile. He seemed a little hesitant, but I figured he knew that the question was ridiculous.

At this point I sort of wished Armin was here. If I had to be honest, I’ve never tried aiming for a guy who was straight. Well... not that it was confirmed or anything, but the way it was all going it seemed that way. All the guys I ever flirted with I knew had a little bit of gay in them. They were much easier to roll conversations with. But Marco.... He was different. I couldn’t figure it out. He seemed straight. He looked fucking straight. He was a little shy around the edges, but seemed like he could stand on his feet. He just seemed too kind and the type of guy who would go along with anything, even if he didn’t like it that much. But where the fuck do I go from here? Do I answer in some cocky manner or do I tell the truth? I guess this counted as him wanting to get to know me? In a strange, round about kind of way?

I must have stared too long at my empty class because I saw him squirm in the seat and begin mumbling in the corner of my eye.

“Forget it. Sorry I asked. I guess that was a little personal, aye?” I couldn’t help but cringe internally at the use of ‘aye.’ Damn sheepshaggers and their ‘ayes.’  But… he actually sounded cute when he said it. His voice made it likeable.

“Nah. It’s more like if I asked why you’re straight?” I countered. He laughed at that and the air suddenly cleared. Or at least, he seemed a lot more at ease after that. I could have sworn I saw his face slightly contort before he answered. But I couldn’t be one-hundred-percent sure. He seemed a little uneasy about his reply.

“True. Pretty stupid question, aye?”

I hummed in agreement. Awkward silence fell upon us afterwards. I was left questioning myself as to why. If I had to re-look at this conversation, the whole thing was awkward as fuck. It was obvious as day that he felt it too. The way he sat told me he wasn’t that comfortable around me and seemed like he was only sitting there to be nice. I wasn’t too sure if it was because of my own awkwardness or if it was because of the impression I originally left. It was no-doubt the latter, I’m sure of it!

Eventually the bartender handed back our drinks (and cards) and he almost flew head first into the glass, sipping from it vigorously.

“You sure like your pina coladas,” I mused. I allowed myself the chance to look down to his neck, speckled with freckles. I watched how the slight lump of his adam’s apple wobbled as he swallowed. Oh _shit._ I tried hard not to show signs of my sudden increase of temperature and lustful thoughts. As badly as everything was going, I didn’t even care. He was still such a hot piece of work to look at in the end.

“Definitely.  I love almost any creamy cocktail,” he sent me a flashy smile along with his reply. ‘Then you’d love my _come_ ,’ I thought smugly with a smirk on my face. Yeeeah, I really had to tune it out more.

As I picked up my glass to take a sip, I turned around and searched the surrounding area again, somehow I spotted two blonds in the distance looking at me. Yeah, you got that fucking right. Blond-turd and blond-stud. Probably babysitting me and making sure I don’t royally fuck it up. Boy, if only they knew that I was doing a great job of it already! Armin looked like he was slightly leaning against the blond-stud as they stood and I almost, a little _jealous_. How the fuck did Armin get it to easy? How?! How could he easily just coax and talk, and relate.

I felt relieved to see them though. I desperately needed their help to ease the awkward tension and horrific conversation Marco and I had. After all, Armin’s wingman moves the previous night was far from enough to what he owed me. I made sure Marco wasn’t looking and quickly waved them over with a small flick of the hand. Armin almost instantly spotted me with a beaming smile and walked towards us.

“There you are, Jean,” Armin greeted cheerfully. Thank fucking heavens for blondie. Thank you so much Armin. You are a true life saver. “We were looking for you.” He continued. I could see Marco in the corner of my eye turn to Armin as he heard him over the music.

He made a show of looking towards Marco before chuckling in his hands. “It’s you again!”

“Hi there! Nice to see you again,” Marco beamed his stunning smile and held out his hand. Armin took hold of it and shook it frantically.

“Armin Arlert and you?” God. How did Armin make it look so fucking easy? How!?

“Marco Bott,” Marco sent another inviting smile. This time the blond-stud chirped in and grabbed hold of him too.

“Erwin Smith, pleasure to meet you. Kiwi, by any chance?” Erwin asked soothingly. I couldn’t help but note it was his own iconic way of luring a person in. Fuck! I never even stood a chance against either of these two fucking blonds, did I?

“Sure am. Born and raised,” Marco sheepishly smiled as he rubbed the back of his head. I watched his hair move slightly with the motion and then was pounded by another whiff of his delicious cologne. _Oh fuck._

“Where abouts?” Armin questioned as he and the blond-stud grabbed the two bar stools from next to me and moved them closer to us to create a small circle. Armin sent me a gentle smile, silently questioning if I was okay. I ended up just nodding in reply while I took a long sip from the pina colada. Slightly rolled my eyes to make him aware that, yeah, I’m not doing so hot.

“Auckland!” Marco chirped.

“Oh yes. Lovely city. Been there a couple of times for business trips,” Erwin nodded to confirm. “I’m assuming you’re a student?” Erwin threw an arm around Armin’s waist at that moment and I couldn’t help but eye both of them curiously. I could have sworn Marco seemed a little surprise at the action too, but I couldn’t tell exactly with the dimmed lights.

How the fuck did Armin and the blond-stud make it look so easy, though? Maybe the topic I had begun with was just bad or something. Lord, I don’t even fucking know anymore. As far as I know, my efforts were a waste. Thank god they decided to check on me.

“Oh yes, of course.” He paused for a while, taking another look at how Erwin had his arm seductively over Armin’s waist. “I’m assuming you’re the ones who met on the ship?”

I had to pause there for a second because not only was that fucking forward as ever. Seriously, I was starting to think Marco had no filter on these kinds of things. But what surprised me the most was that I did not once even mention whether it was Armin or Eren who had met someone on the ship. I guess Marco was just smart enough to figure it out by looking. Maybe he noticed it too at the dinner. Such guts he had to even assume!

Armin gawked at Marco and then sent me a look of confusion. I just slightly shrugged my shoulders as Erwin let out a throaty laugh.

“Indeed. Jean, you sure know how to pick your friends,” he joked. Or at least, I hope he was joking. ‘Cause I seriously don’t know much about Marco yet.

“As long as you don’t have the same motto as him,” Armin snickered. Unlucky for me, Marco took the bait. Damn, they’re going to hammer me. They must have thought that I told Marco all about them.

“Motto?” He furrowed his brows as he took a sip from his drink.

“What was it again? Oh yes...To be young and to get laid,” Erwin, the fucking fucker, teased. How dare they embarrass me further in front of the freckled boy. So much for fucking helping! Thanks blondies! You guys suck!

Marco barked out a laugh and replied between chuckles. “Well it’s sure not working on my poor friend, that’s for sure.” He was even joined in! What the fuck, man! What!? Why were they taunting me!? What did I do wrong to deserve this piss of karma?

Armin laughed when he caught onto what Marco suggested. Of course the blondie knew all the times the lanky boy had shit in his pants whenever he caught me staring. Erwin, the fucker, didn’t quite understand it but laughed along with them anyway.

“You guys are fucking bunch of wankers,” I hissed, feeling my cheeks grow hot as they howled even harder after my statement.

I was about to add something else on but was stopped when we heard an unfamiliar voice.

“Marco,” the blond bloke called. He placed a hand almost instantly on the freckled boy’s shoulder and pull him slightly.

“Time to go?” Marco questioned as he gazed down to his watch. He sent us an apologetic smile as he looked up again.

“I have to get going now. It was great to meet you again,” he said as he stood.

Armin and Erwin said their goodnights and just as he walked away, I pounced towards him, grabbing onto his surprisingly thick wrist.

“Let’s do this again, maybe?” I asked, hopeful. His eyes ever so slightly widened at my question and he nodded an instant yes.

“Tomorrow. Same place, same time?” I continued. He was quiet for a moment and I could feel the intensity as we had three different pairs of eyes on us.

“Maybe nine-thirty instead?” I sighed in relief when he finally replied.

“Hell yeah,” I confirmed and sent him a charming smile.

“Great. Have a good night,” he smiled and walked away.

I didn’t care that we just planned another meeting in front of Erwin, Armin and... Reiner? I was just so happy that I’d see him again. Hell fucking yeah! Even better, it’d be right after dinner! Fuck yeah! Not only did I finally learn his name, but I also planned another time to see him. Score two for Jean Kirstein.

Let me repeat that. _Hell. Fucking. Yeah!_

I realised I still had two blonds to talk to once I turned around. They both sent me the most fucking smug smiles I’ve ever seen and I was so close to punching it off their faces.

“Thanks,” I eventually muttered when I sat down.

“You looked like you needed some help,” Armin explained. “What did you even talk about?”

I shrugged and took a long sip from the last of my drink.

“Stuff. But god, Armin. You had no idea how fucking awkward it was,” I groaned, rubbing my palm into my forehead.

“And here I thought you could get into anyone’s pants,” Armin countered. Fuck you, blondie. Just because you had it so easy doesn’t mean I could too. I mean, it’d be ideal, but not everyone is so lucky! We all know how my luck is by now!

Erwin cleared his throat at that and took a big breath. He still had his arm around Armin’s waist and I still felt a little jealous about it.

“Well, if I can give you an advice then it’d be just to go easy on him,” Erwin commented. I furrowed my eyebrows at his statement.

“He did seem a little uptight,” Armin nodded. “But then again... he seemed really nice too. He joked around with us for a short while once we loosened him up a bit.”

Erwin smiled at that. “Well, he said he was a student, didn’t he?” I nodded to confirm.

“Start off asking what he’s studying? Just get the balls rolling. And remember, this isn’t like your high school parties where everyone wants to get in bed,” he explained.

I had to hand it to the blond-stud. He barely even knew me. Correction, we had met just a couple of hours ago properly. And already he was giving me some of the _best_ fucking advice ever. Not only that, he helped me find Marco. Armin, I applaud you, man. You just found one of the greatest guys on this fucking planet. Don’t you dare let your grubby little hands let go of him. Ship-fling or not. Grandpa-disapproves or not, _keep him_.

“Where’s the shit-stain and Mikasa?” I curiously asked when I realised they weren’t around. Armin let out a snorted laugh and began howling with laughter again. I was sure that Erwin was snickering too.

“Let’s just say he got into some trouble,” the blond-stud explained. As tempted as I wanted to pry and push for an explanation, I somehow knew I wouldn’t get anything out of either of them in full detail.

“Mikasa?” I tried anyway.

“She went to find Connie and Sasha,” Armin explained when he finally calmed down.

We decided to stick for a while longer at the bar. Erwin ordered some kind of strong booze on the rocks (I guess that shit comes with age) and Armin had gone with that strange wine and oj cocktail we had made at the class the previous day. Of course I ordered another pina coloda, with hopes that I could collect a few umbrellas by the end of it.

When I reached the fifth umbrella, I looked at my watch again it was already heading for past twelve midnight. I sure as hell knew I didn’t want to stick around any longer while the two blond continued to talk about boring shit again. When I stood, Armin quickly caught my wrist and muttered “let me say goodbye.”

That was quite surprising. I assumed he would’ve wanted to stay with the blond-stud a little while longer.

“We’ll be on Deck 12 tomorrow,” Armin had said his goodbye.

“Have a good evening then,” Erwin sent his wishes. I definitely did not miss the way he ran his hand down Armin’s arm. “Goodnight Jean,” he added, giving me a nod.

I just grunted and began walking. I heard Armin yelp and then suddenly he leaped next to me.

“You really didn’t want to stay longer?” He pondered, looking down to his feet when we walked towards the stairs.

“Fuck no. You can go back though, it’s fine,” I countered. I was sure as hell that he was about to turn around before we climbed up the first step, but I was yet again gobsmacked that he followed me instead. I guess he wanted to call it a night too.

“So... Things seemed to go good for you and that blond-stud of yours,” I began. Armin chuckled and let out a small sigh.

“It sure did. Not too sure if I could say anything for that Marco guy,” he retorted. I would have given him some snarky comment back but I couldn’t. He was telling the truth and there was nothing I could do about it either. Instead I gave him a slight change in topic.

“God... What are my parents and your grandpa going to think? You know... me having a fling with a freckled boy from a different country and you going at it with an odd thirty year old bachelor,” I joked, running a hand through my hair.

“Are you sure they’ll be okay with your non-existent fling?” Armin teased. What a fucking cheeky shit. Whoa. Sometimes, just sometimes, I forget that Armin can be a sassy fucker. Growing up with Jaeger does that to people.

“Fuck you, Armin,” I groaned. He just laughed as we made it slowly up the stairs.

“You did screw it up though. I could tell from how he was looking at you. What were you even talking about?” He tried again. I kept quiet until we reached our deck and ended up sighing.

“Some terrible shit that I’ll probably hate myself for,” I finally admitted.

“It couldn’t have been that bad if he agreed to talk to you again.”

“Oh, it was fucking awkward. As awkward as that bloke. Get this, he even told me to stop staring and that the bloke is apparently taken. He thought I was after the lanky bloke! Can you believe it!?” I announced as we walked through the slightly trippy and slanted hallways. Armin let out another howl of laughter. I was just thankful that the ship had soundproof walls. Thank fucking god. Didn’t want to get into trouble for late night noise.

“That’s hilarious! I should’ve known he’d think you were after the tall guy,” Armin chuckled.  “I hope you told him it isn’t like that.”

“Kind of,” I shrugged.

At that we reached our cabin and quickly got in with the swipe of Armin’s card. We found the cabin mostly empty except for the loud snores Connie was making from his top bunk bed. Surprisingly enough the shit-stain wasn’t in the cabin or even on his bed. I was going to ask again what happened to him, but decided that it could wait for the following day.

Instead I went straight for the fridge and got out a couple of snacks that I knew Connie kept in there. It probably wasn’t the best idea to eat cheese and crackers before bed, but fuck it. I was starving after eating so little at dinner. A holiday meant junk food galore. It wasn’t like I was the only one. Even blondie joined in and before we knew it, the fridge was almost empty.

“If Connie asks, Jaeger ate it all,” I planned once we were done and got undressed for bed.

“Eren’s not even here,” Armin mused. “But, for once I’ll agree.”

It was a good way to end a long day. It wasn’t as long as the previous one but it was long enough. But sleep didn’t find me easily that night again. Even after Armin had started breathing evenly in his sleep, I still laid awake, replaying the conversation Marco and I had.

Even though everything was already said and fucking done with, I still shuddered in embarrassment at the awkward conversation we had. Even more to what Erwin and Armin had said to him. Fuck! But it was like what Armin said. At least Marco wanted to talk to me again. My stomach twirled at the thought of the freckled boy’s name.

_Marco...._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Jean finally knows Marco’s name but alas, he’s still got a while to go! Thank goodness for Erwin and Armin! I did say something about Armin being a plot device... kinda? Also that Jean can do the talk but he can’t do the walk! Again, I based this off on how much he blushed when he saw Mikasa. Hahah! I sort of like how he can be a but tsundere when it comes to Mikasa. But his boldness with friends and Eren is fun to write too.
> 
> Thank you to Bertl for being a mini plot device too! He’s finally off the hook now. The shots been fired, I don’t think Jean will look at him that often anymore! Also, I’m terribly sorry if Erwin comes off more of a nicer person... but he isn’t really. He’s got ulterior motives.....? I hope Marco came across a little hesitant at first.. and that their conversation was awkward. I hope. I can't write these kinds of scenes well. 
> 
> became a thing. I imagine Marco to be quite honest with his words, with no immediate thoughts of a person’s feelings. Like, back in the anime when he spoke freely about what he thought of Jean, to Jean’s face. Hopefully with time, I can shine his personality more. I apologise for the awkwardness! I would have been too, if the dude who kept stalking my friend was trying to pitch up a conversation. Actually, if it was me, I wouldn’t have been brave like Marco and spoken to Jean… But hey… maybe that’s a hint, much like how he was aware of Erwin and Armin, that maybe he is harbouring something too…
> 
> Thank you again to my lovely beta-readers: thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for supporting me and making sure there are no mistakes! And once more, thanks to seekingperfection for helping me decide on a few things!
> 
>  
> 
> Tidbits:  
> Franger - condom  
> G’day – hi  
> Kia ora – hi  
> Root - sex  
> Auckland – city in New Zealand. Most populated one.


	6. Slurs And Accidental Ass Grabbing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: FAIR WARNING. CURRENTLY EDITING CHAPTERS. PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED BY THE SUDDEN CHANGE IN CHARACTER OR INCREASE IN SWEARING. THIS CHAPTER IS CURRENTLY IN THE EDITING PROCESS.
> 
> Big thank you to the kudos, bookmarks and hits!!! Yay!!!
> 
> Another day at sea before they port again! Jean will get another chance to talk to Marco and hopefully *fingers crossed* things go much better this time! You can do it, Jean! 
> 
> Warning: There is mention of homophobic slurs in this chapter. It’s not used in an offensive way (rather, more like stating them) but thought I’d make mention of it just in case.
> 
> Sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise! It's going to be a long one!

_Day 8  
_ _In which Jean learns more about Marco Bott._

* * *

 

 

The wake up to Wednesday (January 8th) was decent. Actually, it was hell good. And it was good enough to remind us all that it had been a week since we climbed up on the ship.

_A whole week._

One fucking week.

And what have I done within a week? I’ve seen Brizzie, Port Douglas and I’ve somehow met one fucking hot freckled boy named Marco.

Other than the week being lazy as fuck, I knew (thanks to Armin and his constant reminding) that this next week of the cruise was going to be busy. Somehow we’ve got four ports this week. Fucking four of them. If that doesn’t scream tiresome touristy shit, then I don’t know what does.

The only downside to the fact that we’ve been on a ship for a week was that we only had another four to go. If a single week went as fast as it did, I wondered how fast four could go. But that meant I only had four more weeks of ultimate luxury. Fuck! That meant four more weeks of seeing the freckled boy. Was that nearly enough time to get to know him better? Was that enough to go slow and somehow end up in his bed?

Connie, Armin and I woke up to the sound of an alarm that I think Armin had set. I think it was at ten? I couldn’t exactly be sure. Anyway, we wasted no time as we got changed because (well, I’m not too sure about Connie or Armin) I was fucking starving. And since I had missed the previous morning’s heavenly good pastries, there was no way in hell I was going to miss up on them again.

Before we left the hallway, we made sure to check if Mikasa and Sasha were still in bed, but were surprised when no one answered.

And of course no one answered because we somehow found them in a crowded buffet hall. Mikasa looked like she had seen better days. (Well, not as bad as she was on the first day of ship. But it looked like she lacked some sleep and was in need for some painkillers or something) While Sasha was stuffing her face with three or so plates around her.

I, unfortunately, didn’t run into any freckled boy, I mean Marco, or his mates. But figured they probably woke up earlier than we did. And luckily there was no crazy woman and her crazy group of friends either. Finally. I could finally have those fucking pastries in peace. But then that reminded me of the shit-stain and how quiet it was. Oddly enough, it had been quite a while since I’ve heard that annoying voice of his.

“Where’s Jaeger?” I asked before scoffing down one of the day’s special pastries. This time it was a custard swirl. Oh lord, it was so fucking good and moist and oh man, thank god I got three of them.

“I don’t know. I’m surprised he’s not back yet,” Armin wondered, before taking a bite of his egg worriedly.

“What? He didn’t go back to the cabin?” Mikasa quickly asked. Bingo. Mikasa’s protectiveness kicked in pretty quickly.

“No... After what happened he never came back,” Armin confirmed. This only made me more eager to know what happened once I left them the previous night.

“What happened with Eren?” Connie asked. Thank fucking god Connie. Thank you!

“I’m sure he’ll hate it if I told you guys.”

“Noooo, come on, Armin,” I chided. “We won’t tell a soul.”

“As long as you don’t tell him it was me, then fine,” Armin sighed. I guess Armin knew fucking better than to say no to annoying shits like Connie and I. When we teamed up, we were fucking ruthless.

“Deal,” Connie and I replied in unison. Sasha stopped eating for a minute to listen on in the goods too.

“Well, since Jean went off on his own last night, we decided to go for a drink with the group of people we went to dinner with,” (I’m guessing he added that part for Connie and Sasha) “Personally, I think he had too much wine to begin with. We all know what wine does to him, right?”

“Don’t tell me the dipshit got drunk off two glasses of wine?” I snickered.

“No, I don’t think he did. But I think he was feeling pretty tipsy or else I don’t think he would have pushed into Levi’s personal space like he did. Levi is one of the guys in the group, by the way.”

“And he’s constantly in agro mode,” I added. Sasha giggled once I finished.

“Anyway. I just think the guy got annoyed at him. But the thing that pushed him was probably when Eren snorted his drink onto the man,” Armin finished.

“What!?” Sasha squealed. Connie and I immediately started erupting in laughter. The shit-stain snorted out his drink!?

“Levi was giving some snarky comment to the bartender who was giving him a new drink and apparently Eren obviously found it hilarious, but his mouth was too full to even laugh,” he continued. “And before any of us knew it, Levi was swearing like a sailor and pulling Eren off to somewhere. Mikasa wanted to go after him, but the others said he’d be fine.”

Connie and I were still laughing our asses off that neither of us really cared when Mikasa gave us a death glare. That was fucking hilarious though! Way to go, shit-stain! I could already imagine how fucking mad the agro man would have been! Ha!

“Are you sure he’s okay though? You don’t think the guy threw him off the ship or something?” Connie snorted.

“No, I’m sure we’ll see him again somewhere,” Armin nodded, taking another bite of his food.

“Hey, I won’t have any problems if Jaeger was thrown overboard,” I teased.

“Jean!” Mikasa hissed. It only earned another fit of laughter from Connie and I. Big fucking deal. It was about time the shit-stain got into trouble.  We had to stick to his fucking lame as moods all through high school. This was the least he could go through.

“So, um. What do you guys have planned for tomorrow?” Sasha asked when we finally calmed down.

“Oh! That’s right. We’re porting at Darwin, aren’t we?” Armin mused, biting his bottom lip ever so slightly. As soon as his eyes fell on me, I knew exactly that I was going to have another day full of fucking walking like the day in Brizzie.

For those idiots who did not know about Darwin and their weather during January, then all I have to say is ‘thank your lucky stars.’ Because most of the time it was either wet and hot or humid and hot. Wait, not hot. Fucking boiling. Humidity is what killed me the most. And the look Armin gave me told me I was going to be stuck walking in that fucking humidity, rain or shine.

“Well, since I didn’t want to risk going to the national parks, I planned that Jean and I will just visit the museum and spend the day looking at shops,” Armin finally replied. Sasha smiled at that and gave him a thumbs up.

“I wanted to do some shopping too! Especially since this is the last time we’ll see malls for a while. But then Connie mentioned something about a wave pool.”

“Sash, I told you. We can go shopping and then swim at the pools,” Connie corrected.

Armin immediately faced me with a look that told me ‘let’s do it too.’ I couldn’t be happier than to fucking agree.

“Museum, shops and then pools? Deal,” I nodded instantly. Again, I couldn’t help but feel a whiff of nostalgia as he sent me that cute smile of his. Ah, the things I do to please the fucking blondie.

“What are you going to do Mikasa?” Armin asked gently.

“Find Eren,” she stated. He chuckled at her quick reply.

“No, I mean when we’re in Darwin.” At that she furrowed her brows and shrugged. Leave it to Mikasa to not really plan anything. (You know how I mentioned before we ported at Port Douglas that Armin had made us agree on only seeing certain sights together? Well, the rest we agreed to choose on our own. It only seemed fair. And anyway, like hell I was going to go to every fucking port with the shit-stain! The agreed seemed like the best fucking thing.)

“Why not join us? I’m sure you’d enjoy the museum too,” Armin suggested. Oh fuck, blondie. Don’t you dare! I don’t want to be stuck with the shit-stain all day. God damn. I spoke too fucking soon!

“I’ll ask if he wants to,” she smiled.

And that’s when we fell into a comfortable silence, eating our breakfasts as usual until everyone was done. It was just going to be Armin and me going to the deck chairs on Deck 14, but Connie had asked to join us. He said something about Sasha and Mikasa heading to the spa. (But I’m going to take a wild fucking guess that straight after Mikasa was going to go find her shitty step-brother.)

We found three empty deck chairs and covered ourselves in thick layers of sunblock. The weather was still fucking hot outside, even though you could see clouds in the distance. I didn’t know geography at fucking all, but I definitely knew the closer we got to Darwin, the hotter and cloudier it was going to get. I just hoped to god the rocking of the ship wouldn’t get any rougher. Actually, I was fucking praying we wouldn’t leave during a thunder storm. I’ve heard those were shit crazy.

With music in the background blasting some kind of pop music and the sun hot on my skin, I decided that it was not a bad way to spend yet another day on the cruise ship. Well, that was until I felt a fucking shadow cast on me. Who the hell was blocking my fucking sun?

“Armin, Jean,” we heard that soothing voice. God. It was that fucking blond-stud again. And this time, I swear to the fucking lord, I could not take my eyes off him as soon as I sat up.

Do you want to know why? Like actual to fucking god why I couldn’t take off my eyes from my mate’s fling?

Because he was shirtless. That’s fucking why. He was shirtless and so hot. Holy shit. And his tan was so fucking drool worthy and holy fuck. Was this man even real? The name ‘Blond-stud’ didn’t even fucking describe him at this point. And mother of fucking god. Were those ray-bans aviators!? Was he actually fucking wearing ray-bans aviators!? Holy shit! Who the hell even does that these days!?

I knew Armin was in shock too as he squeaked a hello. I could have sworn I saw a smirk on the blond-stud’s face as he realised what his shirtless body did to the blondie. And I could even swear fucking louder when I realised Armin’s face was fully bright red. Connie had sat up to the noise (even though he was snoring gently a while ago) and looked up to where the noise was coming from.

“Ahh... This is our other friend, Connie,” Armin blurted out. I couldn’t help but notice how nervous he sounded. Not that I could blame him or anything. Cause damn, if that was my man, I would be a fucking mess too.

“G’day mate,” Connie gave a half wave and his own shit-eating grin.

“Pleasure. Erwin Smith,” he held out his hand as usual. And of course Connie took it gingerly.

“Connie Springer,” he sounded awkward as fucking ever. Not that I could fucking blame him.

Erwin just nodded and headed to the other side of Armin and took a seat in the empty deck chair. And now that he was a small distance away I (and surely Connie could too) see the glow of lotion on his body.

Holy. Fucking... you know what. Fuck this life. Armin, good fucking work. Well done, blondie. How the fuck did you even attract someone like that!?

Connie surprised me when he grabbed hold of my shoulders and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Is that the guy Armin hooked up with?”

“Yeah,” was all I could muster. I was still fucking mesmerised by his holy fucking shirtless body. At least he had the decency to wear khaki shorts. (And I guess at this point I have to make mention that seeing shirtless guys and girls in bikinis walking around the cruise ship was no fucking big deal. It was in the middle of summer. Of course it was alright. Fuck, even I was strutting around in a tank top. I was so fucking keen to get shirtless too but now I felt I wouldn’t stand a chance against that fucker.)

“Man, can’t believe I’m going to say this. What a score,” Connie finally replied and went back to lay on his deck chair. I carried on watching anyway. Armin was flustered as fuck as he made idle talk with Erwin and I swear (like fucking seriously swear... And no, I wasn’t looking on purpose) there was a bulge in Armin’s board shorts. And I sure as fucking hell noticed that the blond-stud had seen it too.

I ended up just snorting and laying back down myself. Not that it mattered anyway. I had my own blazing hot freckled boy to look forward to. And this time, I was going to make a real move on him and not have another awkward conversation. Hell fucking yeah.

 

-

 

“Jean, your freckled eye candy is around,” was my wake up call from Connie. I immediately sat up at that and then only realised that it was the wrong thing to do. I felt strangely disorientated as well which only made sense once I realised my fucking position.

At some point I had turned onto my stomach and somehow I fucking fell asleep. And I guessed it must have been for a long while because Connie was scoffing down some food that was on a couple of plates in front of him.

“No need to be that eager, dude,” he scoffed after gulping down his drink. And I was pretty sure I heard a couple of chuckles from the other side of me. Armin and Erwin probably heard that. And knowing how much they knew about everything in general, I knew they were fucking laughing at me.

I ended up turning around onto my ass and looking in between the slits of the railing (did that even fucking make sense?) on the deck. Truth be told, there was the freckled boy; sitting with the blonde chick on the rim of the pool. (Annie, I think was her name?) And holy fuck. That was one major t-shirt tan. Connie was seriously not fucking joking. That untanned skin could probably light up a whole fucking dark room.

“God... his tan is worse than I remember,” Connie snickered when he realised I noticed.

“That’s what you get for being a sheepshagger,” I stated lamely.

“He’s a sheepshagger? And you’re still going for him?” Connie asked in disbelief. (You know what, I won’t even fucking explain why. It’s just some random joke we had going when we were in high school.)

“He’s trying to,” Armin interrupted. He bent over my deck chair to grab a couple of fries off Connie’s plate.

“Trying? What...? Seriously? You can’t get your hands on a guy with a tan like that?” Connie snorted. “Wouldn’t a guy like that be super easy to get with?”

“Not when he’s straight,” I mumbled.

“Oh come on, are you serious? So none of your moves worked on him?”

Armin laughed when he finally pulled back and sat on his own deck chair. I shot him an annoyed look and noticed that the blond-stud was still on his own deck chair and sucking on what it looked like to be a popsicle. God... Armin was missing such a fucking hot view. Holy fucking smokes.

“He didn’t even pull a single move, I don’t think,” Armin teased. And then I heard Erwin’s chuckle. So he was listening in too, huh?

“What the hell, Jean?” Connie grumbled. “What happened to the Jean at the parties? You use to have no problems getting guys.”

I was going to retort to that but Erwin’s throaty laugh interrupted me. Ha. Ha. Very fucking funny indeed, fucker.

“Really? I find that hard believe after what happened yesterday,” he finally let up. Armin sent him a timid smile in return. Obviously the blondie didn’t realise Erwin would get cocky around me.

“Hell yeah. I was a fucking stud. Those boys digged my undercut and crazy skills in bed,” I boasted. Hey. I might as well fucking try. I know he was Armin’s ship fling and whatever. But I still had my fucking pride and there was no way in hell that I was going to look even worse in front of him. And this time it was Connie that howled with laughter.

“I find that hard to believe. But it’s like I said last night. You’re not in high school anymore and whoever you’re willing to get into bed with next won’t be as eager,” Erwin carried on. I wanted to send him a death glare. And a really fucking bad one too. But the way his tongue twirled around that popsicle he had in his hand stopped me from even going there. Fuck!

“I thought it only gets crazier at uni?” Connie questioned.

“I guess it depends on your friends and how busy you are with your classes,” he waved off.

Like fuck if he knew. He was fucking thirty odd years old. Times have changed since his time at uni. As far as I knew, people still got drunk on weekends at clubs and tried to find easy roots. Which to me sounded just fucking perfect. Definitely a life I was looking forward to. Hell yeah!

“And the ones who go clubbing and to bars?” I asked.

“I meant the proper students who don’t waste their money on alcohol,” he quickly blew off.

“Well, your uni experience seems fucking lame,” I grumbled and gazed back down towards the freckled boy. Even if his tan was a turn off, I still couldn’t help but stare at what a hot body he had. Sure, it didn’t look like he lifted weights or anything, but for a random find he was fucking hell hot. His shoulders were so broad and he had a good set of ar- What the fuck was I even thinking? Was I a fucking love-sick girl or what!? But fuck that, excuse me for being a fucking perve. I was allowed to stare, okay?  

( _Of course,_ just to make mention to all you dipshits reading this: I, on the other hand, was fucking proud of my body. Okay fine, maybe I wasn’t wearing any fucking abs like blond-stud was. But I at least did some weight training. Fuck, I even played footy while I was in school. Of course I was fit as fuck!)

“Quite the contrary. I’ll save that for a later day,” he finished off. Armin made a small sound which caught my attention. And I fucking regretted it because there the blond-stud fucking was, hugging the blondie. Well. If you called it a fucking hug with one arm wrapped around him.

“I’m heading off now. Oh, Connie, would like to join us?” He stood after that. Connie immediately turned his head to Erwin when he heard the invitation. God, what a fucking lucky dude. He didn’t have to see the half embrace the blond-stud just gave the fucking blondie. And I sure as hell did not miss how red Armin had gotten from that. Holy damn, Armin. Calm your fucking blood.

“Naah. Sasha and I prefer the buffet,” he finally replied, waving his hand with a piece of french fry in between his fingers.

“If you’re sure. Well then, see you later tonight boys,” the blond-stud nodded and threw a towel over his one shoulder. And I sure as fucking hell did not miss the pervy gaze Armin had on his face as the blond-stud walked away.

“Finally he’s gone,” Connie made a scene with a big sigh and stretch. Armin’s head flashed to his direction as quickly as fucking lightning with furrowed brows. “Calm your farm, Armin. I just wanted to say good work. He looks like he’s loaded.” I swear the thumbs up he gave the blondie wasn’t helping at all.

“Get this,” Armin shifted closer to me. “Apparently he’s got his own mini-suite with a balcony on Deck 11.”

“Are you fucking serious!?” I barked. Holy fucking shit. He was fucking loaded. A mini-suite!? Those things are the most fucking expensive rooms you can even get on this cruise ship. Holy fucking shit! Scratch that, he wasn’t just hot and rich. He was fucking loaded! What the hell did this man do for a fucking living?

“And it’s not just him. They all got their own. Well, except for Hanji and Mike. They’re sharing one,” Armin continued.

“That’s crazy man. You’d be a dipshit to not hook up with him,” Connie chided.

“Connie. That’s not nice,” Armin frowned at that.  Oh mother of fucking god. Who the hell cares that it wasn’t nice!? Connie had a fucking point. If I was Armin I’d have been in that cabin with him on the first night already. But this was Armin we were talking about. Armin never did that. I knew the blondie so fucking well that I could almost tell that it’s going to annoy the blond-stud to his fucking end to get Armin in bed. But hey, Armin could always go and fucking surprise us all.

 I ended up standing and stretching my legs out. Sleeping on the deck chair on my stomach was one hell of a bad fucking idea. And what surprised me the most was that I had slept for a long as time. When I had checked my watch it was already going for three and- Oh fuck no! I was not going to miss fucking lunch!

“I’m gonna’ grab a bite,” I excused myself. Connie hummed a reply and Armin almost nearly shot straight into me as he grabbed my wrist.

“I’m coming with you,” he mumbled. I had just shrugged my shoulders and headed towards the buffet on Deck 12.

Of course we passed Marco and his mate. And by some fucking miracle he spotted me from across the swimming pool. And I definitely could not miss the awkward wave he gave me. I can honest to god say, it was fucking awkward. The whole fucking exchange was so fucking awkward. I was so glad Armin and I were walking fast enough to catch the buffet before it closed at four.

“At least he spotted you first this time,” Armin tried to assure when we headed back after grabbing platefuls of food. Oh sure. I was over the fucking moon that the fre-Marco spotted me. Actually, I was pretty fucking happy about it. But it was that awkward wave and slanted smile that came with it that worried me fuckless.

“What are your plans anyway?”

“I don’t even fucking know. Maybe I’ll just go along with the flow. Or do what your blond-stud suggested,” I shrugged my shoulders once we reached our deck chairs from earlier. Connie was lying down again with all his plates gone. (Did I ever mention that waiters and waitresses were constantly walking around? I swear this was like fucking five star services twenty-four-seven. You could take your drinks and plates of food anywhere on the ship and sure as fucking enough, someone will be there to grab the empty shit afterwards. (And some will even ask you for a drink and get you one.) Like I said earlier. This ship was going to make me fucking lazy as.)

“Please stop calling him that, Jean,” Armin complained. Like hell I was ever going to stop calling Erwin the blond-stud.

“Come on, you can’t tell me the name fits,” I reasoned. At least blondie didn’t know of his own two nicknames. He’d probably fucking hate me or something if I ever spilled them. Or better yet, he’d probably find some way to fucking taunt me with that brain of his.

“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” blondie finished. “But if you want, we can hang around again.”

“Nah. It’ll be ace this time,” I smiled. This time I didn’t need any of Armin and Erwin’s wingman skills. I could do this. Hell yeah. I could fucking do this. This time round, my brain won’t be in my dongar. This time I will be a charming fucking guy and... Ah fuck it. I didn’t even fucking know anymore. And the thought that I had nothing even planned made me so fucking nervous that I was almost (okay, not really) not even hungry. I ended up just gulping whatever fucking nerves attacked me and scoffed down the food quickly enough that even made match made in heaven proud. Hell yeah!

“Oh and Armin.” Blondie’s head shot up once I said his name. “Let’s drop by that mini bar where the cocktail class was before dinner.”

Armin just furrowed his brows at that and shrugged. I was just so fucking glad he didn’t pry and asked why. And I just hoped to god that whatever my fucking brain planned at that moment would work like a charm.

 

-

 

After Armin and I had gotten ready, (and had our gloriously good showers. Again, I will repeat, the showers were so fucking good) we headed straight for Deck 7 by the stairs because as fucking always those elevators were crowded. And if they weren’t crowded, then they took a long as fucking time to reach the deck. Seriously. There were like a total of nine fucking elevators and I swear to god they were all fucking crowded. That made fucking no sense at all.

Armin and I both somehow decided tonight was another big fucking night and went all out again. Although, this time Armin was sporting a vest that he only wore for special occasions. (Like our first ever date during high school. God. And it still fits the same on him even though he’s gotten’ a whole lot of fucking cuter- I mean fucking hot. Yeah. Hot) And I felt just a little fucking jealous that he was wearing it for the blond-stud. If I had to guess, I’d say he was wearing it just to please the blond-stud.

Of course, true to Armin’s words, he allowed me to quickly stop by the mini bar where we had learnt how to make the cocktails. And maybe it was wrong of me. Okay, scratch that, it was really fucking wrong of me to wish Armin didn’t hear what I was going to order. And of course, knowing my fucking luck, he heard.

“Two shots of tequila,” I actually fucking whispered. But it was like Armin’s ears could hear such words miles away even if it was fucking whispered. If I had to guess, it was from all the years of having to be friends with that shit-stain. (Whom, might I add, I still have not a single fucking time today. And it’s not like I really cared or anything. But the weirdest past was, Mikasa never returned either. What was even fucking going on?)

“Jean!” Armin scolded.

“Shut up, just let me do this. God,” I groaned.

“Are you serious? Are you really going to, you fruit loop!?” Armin scoffed at that and gently (I swear to god, he actually smacked me gently. If he really wanted me to feel fucking bad, he should’ve smacked me harder) smacked my shoulder. The face he gave me almost fucking reminded me of the one he would normally give the shit-stain when he did something bad. And I seriously could not hold back at that thought. I actually fucking laughed when I realised it was the same face. God, Armin. “Are you really going to get drunk?”

“Hell no. It’s just enough to take off the edge, that’s all,” I explained. The bartender quickly gave me the two shots with salt and lemon slices and I thanked him. Fuck yeah! I needed this so fucking bad. Surely enough tequila would take the awkwardness away. It wasn’t enough to get me drunk. No way in hell. Fuck no. Even though I’d been sipping fruit cocktails all day, I knew the two shots of tequila and two glasses of wine would be safe enough.

“We’re still going to have wine you know?” Armin groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  I knew he’d disapprove of my decision. But I had to fucking do this. Or else I really would have fucked it up even more. I knew drinking booze was not the way to go to solve the mystery of talking to the freckled boy. It’d only help. Just a bit. And that fucking help is what I really needed.

“Well, if you screw it up again, just know Erwin and I won’t be helping you,” Armin warned. I just shot him one of my most charming smiles.

“I won’t need it, don’t worry.”

“Oh, I worry. I worry more about you than I worry about what Eren’s been up to today,” he muttered under his breath. I think he was hoping I didn’t hear him. But of course my ears were almost just as fucking good as his and I definitely did not miss a word. I just quickly downed the two shots one at a time. The sensation of it burning down my throat was almost like fucking heaven. It warmed up my neck and hell yes! This was going to work so well.

“Well someone’s got to look after me,” I teased as I pulled away from the bar.

“I’m not your babysitter, I’m your friend,” Armin retorted as we walked down the hallways.

“Nah, you’re my ex. And my first fuck.”

“God. You better not ever say that in front of Erwin, you hear me?” He warned. And I definitely didn’t miss how low his voice got. Damn. No way in hell would I ever fucking say a word. With the way blondie just warned me, I knew I’d be fucking screwed (fuck, maybe even my grandkids would be) if I went against him. I knew better, of course. And even more importantly (like seriously, this was fucking more important than getting Armin mad) I definitely didn’t want to get the blond-stud mad. As hot as he looked. And as loaded as he was. It was almost too easy to tell that when he got mad, hell fucking broke loose.

I didn’t answer to his statement at all. It was a better idea to just be a good fucking friend and not taunt him which allowed rest of the short walk to fall in a comfortable silence until we got there. And surprisingly enough we both. Yes, we both, fucking gasped. Because there was fucking shit-stain and Mikasa, dressed for the dinner and standing with the crazy woman’s group. I took a wild guess and decided that maybe Mikasa found him at some point and had dragged him into the cabin to get ready.

“Where the fuck have you been, Jaeger?” I instantly asked as we walked up to them. Instead of looking confused as I hoped to god he would. He rather gave me that fucking shit-eating grin instead and holy fuck. I wanted to punch it right off his fucking face. And here I was, just slightly (like really slightly) worried about him all day.

“Good to see you too, Kirstein,” he laughed. That reply was what caught me off fucking guard. I could have sworn that he’d teased back and take my bait. Instead he answered in a way that screwed me up. What the fuck happened to him?

“Good evening!” Armin chirped, clearly ignoring the exchange between the shit-stain and myself.

“G’day! So, we’re all ready for dinner?” Hanji exclaimed as she greeted us. And of fucking course the crazy woman was eccentric as fucking ever.

Everything went like the previous night. Petra had guided us to the same table. The freck- I mean Marco and his mates were sitting at the same table too. (And he actually, holy shit, smiled at me. And of course I did not miss that fucking awkward glare the lanky bloke (Bertl, I think his name was) gave me. I swear, he still looked like he was shitting his pants when our eyes met) Erwin ordered that fucking disgusting wine again and this time, we ordered our meals at the same time as the wine. (Fucking yay, because I was starving)

Except... there were a few changes. Like, I definitely didn’t miss Armin and the shit-stain having a small chat as we were guided to the table. (And I was so fucking disappointed in myself that I didn’t catch a single word they had said) And the seating was a little different. Not really. The shit-stain (oh god. Why!? Why fucking me!?) and Mikasa swapped places so I was stuck next to the shithead. (Who was smiling almost too big for me to think was normal. Normally he wore that fucking scowl as always but this time he kept smiling like he just won that fucking lottery. What was up with that?)

And Hanji had swapped with that agro looking man. Not that it really fucking mattered because he hardly spoke as it was. And when he did it was nothing worth listening to, unless insults and toilet humour was your thing. (Which fucking shit wasn’t my thing. Okay, I lie. I do like a bit of toilet humour every now and then. The prank with Connie shitting to increase the chances of the shit-stain believing it was true was enough to tell you idiotic readers that.)

All in all, the dinner was going swell. Better than I thought it was going to be. Hanji had told us they were going to do the National Park tour on some kind of four-wheel drive car. Not only did it sound so fucking cool but it also sounded so fucking expensive. Funnily enough, Armin didn’t even tell us you could take a tour with such a car at the park. He had just said that he didn’t know. Of course Erwin threw in a couple of tips on where Armin should go if he wanted to visit more historical places. I fucking threw him a death glare at that. Fuck you, blond-stud. Don’t you fucking dare throw ideas into the blondie’s head. As far as I knew, we were going to just one fucking museum and then spend rest of the day at a wave pool (and a lagoon, apparently.)

Anyway... as good as the evening was going, (you all should know how my fucking life is by now. I’m like the god of unlucky, bad timing and fucking karma) it wasn’t until I finished the first glass of wine when the booze finally hit me.

When I mean it hit me. I mean it fucking hit me. So much that I even fucking giggled. I think. Wait no, I know for a fact that I did because I got fucking insulted. You hear that? Fucking insulted. I think?

It was while we were waiting for our mains when it happened. (This seriously sounds like I’m telling a story about the first time I was getting drunk. God! What is even wrong with me!?) I probably shouldn’t have sculled down the glass of wine that quickly. And I knew the look that I got from that fucking agro man (who had his arms crossed) that it was a bad idea. (Obviously only because he realised that it would do me no fucking good. Or maybe he got some kind of hunch somewhere along the line that I would get tipsy from it.)

Anyway, maybe I should have mentioned this, but like the previous night, I was perving between shoulders and getting a good look at the freckled boy. (Who, might I add was wearing this fucking hot red dress shirt. And the way it sat so tight on him made the view even fucking better. I just hoped to god he was wearing those tight jeans again.) And since the fucking dipshits were so boring, I had ended up resting my chin on the palm of my hand.

And that’s when it hit me. Just fucking suddenly I felt the giddiness. I felt that twirl in my stomach and the light-headedness. And oh fuck. I must have smiled so fucking ridiculously big for the agro man to actually comment on it.

“Wipe that smile off your face, brat,” he frowned.

“Huh!?” Eren exclaimed. I snorted lightly at that.

“Not you, him,” Levi nodded towards me.

“Hah?” I lifted my head. That only made me feel even more light-headed. And I swear, I fucking swear I must have let out a giggle. (Especially the part where the shit-stain thought Levi was talking to him.)

“Are you drunk after one glass of wine?” Eren gasped as he turned to face me.

“What? Fuck no!” I hissed. And then I suddenly remembered the story blondie had told us earlier this morning. “Unlike you, I don’t get drunk with wine.”

“What the hell. I’ve never gotten drunk from wine!” Eren protested.

“That’s not what I heard,” I taunted.

“What? Who the hell told you about last night!?”

“Guys, no fighting, please!” Armin interrupted. We both stopped instantly when we saw his warning face. The shit-stain sighed and leaned back in his chair. I of course leaned back onto the palm of my hand and I swear to god, I did not miss that fucking smirk on Levi’s face.  Erwin’s throaty laugh filled the air and of course that caught my attention.

“I guess it must be the nerves?” He assumed.

“No, they’re always like this,” Mikasa called. “I still don’t understand why we brought them along.”

I was about to retort something back (and I sure as hell knew Eren was going to as well) but we were both caught off guard when Hanji’s crazy laugh filled the air. It was so fucking crazy that I swear I saw Marco looking over in the corner of my eye.

“You know what they say, rivals by day, lovers at night,” she finally spoke.

“Fuck no!” I hissed. Where the fuck did that even come from!? Fucking crazy woman and her crazy ideas. No way in hell would I ever think of the shit-stain in that kind of light! What the hell!?

“Ew, no way. Not with horse-face,” Eren quickly disagreed too.

“Hanji, isn’t it lovers by night, strangers by day?” Mike questioned. Everyone, including fucking me, laughed at that. Apparently we laughed so hard that we even got stares from tables around us.

 

-

 

Marco and his mates left just after nine and as eager as I was to follow his lead, I had to sit back and wait for the others to finish their desserts. Of course Erwin knew of my plans, so just fifteen minutes before my meeting time, he had guided everyone out of the dining hall. Of course, he made another reservation for all of us (which I was not one-hundred-percent happy with because I was seriously missing my fucking buffet feasts) and of course popped the question. “What are your plans for rest of the evening, Armin?”

Armin nibbled his bottom lip and shot me a small questioning look. Of course I didn’t miss his cheeks turn faintly pink either 

“Go ahead. I don’t know how long I’ll be,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Where are you going, Kirstein?” Of course the shit-stain had to ask.

“Unlike you, Jaeger. I’m trying to get laid and thankfully, someone is interested,” I boasted. And even though I heard Armin snort at that and even fucking Mikasa gave me a weird look, I still kept my own shit-eating grin plastered on my face. I could tell he was about to give me a smart-ass comment back, but someone else had him beat.

“Ooooh! That sounds exciting! Do we get to meet ‘em sometime?” Hanji quickly asked. I didn’t even reply at that. Instead I faced Armin to wish him goodbye. But again, I was fucking interrupted. God fucking damn.

“Well, if we’re all separating now, why don’t we meet at Deck 12 in an hour? I heard they’ve having a techno party tonight!” Hanji quickly suggested. “Mike, what do you say? Want to go dance with the young ones?” All I saw was Mike nod a reply.

“That sounds great,” Erwin agreed. “Want to join us, Levi?”

“Hell no,” he disagreed. Not a big fucking surprise. He sure as fucking hell did not seem like the type of guy who hung around a crowd like that.

“Okay. Catch you guys in an hour then,” I quickly waved. If I didn’t get the hell out of there at that moment, I would have probably been fucking late to something I planned.

At this point, the booze I had earlier had settled nicely in my stomach. And if I had to be honest, I’d say the worst was already out of my system. I think. All that was left was a small giddy feeling that gave me the push I needed. Yeah. I could do this. I could mother fucking do this.

And just as I walked into the darkness and flashing lights of the small area, my eyes immediately fell towards the bar. And there he fucking was. Tight deep red dress shirt (rolled up, might I fucking add) and dark jeans that... _holy fuck_. Man. Oh fuck. They fitted him _so_ well. And I swear to god, the way he was resting onto the counter only made him look fucking hotter. Even when the jeans ridged up towards his crotch and....

Not tonight. Tonight I had to think clean. He was straight. He had no fucking idea I was aiming for him. I was just a random guy who so happened to fucking stalked his mate. And also so happened to be gay. (Fucking bi. Bi!!!) And also happened to think he’s hot. Fuck! I had to pretend I was just trying to be friends with him. Like shit-stain. Wait no. Not shit-stain. Connie. Yeah! Friends like Connie.

For some reason I drew a big breath and quickly walked on over to him. He seemed to have noticed me beforehand because as I reached him he looked over to me and gave me that fucking iconic smile. Oh lord have fucking mercy on me tonight. I’m begging. _Please._

“G’day stranger,” I beamed him a smile. I guess I thought it’d be fucking hilarious to start this conversation just like we had the previous night.

“G’day Jean,” he chuckled. “Have a seat?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” I accepted as I took a seat on the bar stool. This time I was sitting on the other side of him. (Not to sound fucking weird or anything, but at least this allowed me to have a nice close up of his other side too.)

And just like the previous night, we both ordered pina coladas as soon as the bartender noticed us. And the funniest fucking thing was, it so happened to be that Eld dude who taught us how to make the cocktails.

“Where’re your mates tonight?” I asked, once Eld had passed back out pina coladas and cards.

“Ah, they’re upstairs at the techno party. Reiner loves his techno music,” Marco explained. After finally hearing him talk again, I once fucking more noticed the accent. It wasn’t as bad as the previous night, but it still annoyed me. Just a little bit.

“Want to join them later on? My mates are up there too,” I quickly added. He slightly tilted his head towards me and gave me a nod. And before I knew it silence fell between us again. No. Fuck silence. Silence be damned! I was not going to make it awkward tonight!

“I’ll introduce you to my other mates.”

“The ones from the dinner?” He questioned after he took a sip from his pina colada. I took a sip too before I spoke.

“No. Well, kinda’. You haven’t seen Connie and Sasha yet,” he furrowed his brows once I finished.

“That’s a lot of people,” he stated.

“Not really,” I muttered. Fuck. What was I going to say next? How could I keep this conversation rolling while my fucking heart raced and my hands grew sweaty!? Fuck? Was I this fucking nervous?

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Marco lifted his head at that and gave me a strange look before he giggled. He fucking giggled. Hell yeah! I made him giggle!

“Aren’t we porting at Darwin tomorrow?” He questioned. Well of course I fucking knew that, you sheepshagger!

“Well duh. More like, what the fuck are you doing in Darwin?” I corrected. I couldn’t miss the slight flinch he made when I swore. Right, I forgot. He seemed a bit uptight when I used such words around him.

“Well, we wanted to do the LitchField National Park day tour, but since we weren’t too sure about the weather, we decided to rather do the aqua things... Like AquaScene and Crocodylus Park,” he explained.

“What? Are ya’ going to swim with the crocks?” I had to make sure I said the right words. It would have been awkward as fuck if I said cocks instead.

He let out a timid laugh at that before correcting me. “Maybe. We didn’t exactly book that one. We might feed some smaller ones though.”

“What about you?” He asked after a couple of seconds (fuck that, it felt like minutes) of silence.

“You know, just the usual. Museum, shopping and wave pools,” I replied nonchalantly. He nodded and took another sip and again that fucking awkward silence was back. He obviously found my plans for the day fucking boring compared to his own. Not that I could blame him.

“So, you said you’re from New Zealand?” I started. It seemed simple enough. All I had to do was follow the blond-studs fucking advice. Easy and curious questions could lead to places. Yes. I just had to keep thinking that. I just had to ‘get the balls rolling.’

“Right,” he nodded. Well that was a fucking useless reply.

“Have ya’ ever been to Aus before?” I lifted one of my eyebrows and picked up the glass.

“Only Melbourne.”

“Holiday?” Man. I think I had this in the fucking bag. Yeah. I could do this. Short questions. Short answers. This is what fucking idle chat was, right? This was how I became friends with Armin. Yeah. This was good. This, I could fucking handle.

“No. I have some relatives living there. Well, one relative anyway,” he explained.

“That’s cool,” I nodded. And then I realised it was a big fucking mistake. I should have left it as a question. Fuck!

“Yeah. He’s studying at the uni there currently. Well, he’s in one of his final years by now.” Thank fucking god he carried on. And thank fucking god he seemed a lot more chillax when he answered. (Shit. Did I mention that he sounded as nervous as me?)

“Are you a uni student too?” I had to ask. I know Erwin already had this in the fucking bag the previous night. But I wanted to try it on my own.

“Yeah, I’m in my second year already,” he quickly replied.

“Shit. You’re a year older than me,” I muttered. I swear to god his head shot up quicker than fucking lightning. His eyes slightly widened at that too. What the actual fuck?

“Really? That’s really cool! What are you going to study?” He actually seemed excited. I shit you not. His voice even raised an octave. Holy fucking damn.

“BCom, I think it’s called?” I scratched the side of my cheek at that thought. Would he understand that kind of lingo? Did sheepshaggers nickname their degrees too?

“Bachelor of Commerce? Ahh, my friend Annie is doing that! But she’s doing a law major too,” he chirped. He actually fucking looked happy.

“Really? Do ya’ reckon she could lend me some pointers? I’m the only one out of all my mates who are doing it.”

“Sure! Although, she doesn’t speak much,” he chuckled. I couldn’t help but smile as I sipped on the pina colada. I had been enjoying the conversation so much that I was already almost at the end of my drink. Holy fuck!

“And you?” I finally asked. He looked so fucking eager. It was like he was waiting for me to ask him. What was even up with this guy?

“Medical sciences,” he blurted out. My eyes must have shot open so fucking much because all he did was laugh. “Well, I wanted to do nursing, but... I guess with my parents and all, I decided on medicine and surgery.” Hot fucking damn. He’s a future fucking doctor. Holy fuck. He was going to be one hell of a fucking hot doctor _. Damn_. I wondered if he’d be willing to examine m-. No. Scratch that thought, Jean! Scratch it fucking now!

“What..? So your ‘rents pushed you?”

“Not exactly. My dad is a doctor anyway and I guess maybe I got influenced just a bit,” he seemed to blush at that. He even tilted his head downwards after he’d spent so many fucking minutes looking at me. The lost of his eye contact had me stumbling though.

“Fuck, you must be super smart then,” I stated the obvious.

“Not really, I’m just average. You on the other han-“

“No. Every fucking failure of a high school student does a BCom. Don’t you fucking dare say that,” I interrupted him. I didn’t exactly mean that in a rude way. Seriously! I was just stating the obvious.

“No. But you at least got into uni. That says a lot,” he ended up replying quietly. If I didn’t listen intently, I would have missed it over the loud music.

“Right. Want another drink?”

He didn’t reply for a second and it kind of got a little (okay a fucking lot) awkward again. (Especially after we were having such a good fucking chat and all) But for some reason he looked up and stared at me for a while. And to be fucking honest, it felt weird. Weird enough that I actually squirmed in my seat.

“Sure,” he whispered. I raised my hand for Eld. And once more we bought another pina colada each.

“So... you live in Auckland?” I tried again. That’s the least I could have fucking done. I already ruined whatever we had going on. Might as well try again.

“Sure do.”

“That’s cool. Are you still living with your ‘rents?” Hey, it wasn’t a personal question. You could ask that to anyone, really. And I could have sworn I saw the corner of his mouth hitch up at that.

“No. I’m actually flatting with Reiner and Bertl,” he answered. “Well. Actually. It was at first just Bertl and I, but Reiner came along with Bertl and before I knew it, Reiner wasn’t leaving at all.” He chuckled at that as he ran a hand through his hair. By then our new pina coladas were handed back to us and we both took a long sip.

“Is it weird living with two chocolate drillers?” Oh fuck. I swear. I swear to fucking god it slipped out without me even realising it! God! I seriously fucking thought he was going to be awkward about it again, but instead I was fucking blown off my stride. Literally.

As soon as the words left my mouth, Marco snorted. He snorted so hard that I swear I saw just a little of the pina colada dripping from his nose. What a dork. What a fucking dork. What a _cute_ fucking dork. (Honestly, the name shit-stain ran through my head for just one fucking second too) I thought he was going to give me a weird face but instead I received howls of laughter. He was actually fucking laughing.

Hardcore laughing. So much that he threw his head back. Get. Fucking. This. I made him laugh. Oh my god. His laugh. His laugh was just... Holy fuck.

“Chocolate drillers? Really!?” And somehow that made him laugh even harder. I just awkwardly let out my own, unsure of why he even found it funny.

“Is that what you really call gay people?” He finally asked when his laughter subsided.

“Hell no. There’s also poo-pusher, poo-jabber, bowling from the pavilion end and then the more common, poofter. But I mean, we use words like fags and what not too,” I quickly blurted out. Somehow it just rolled right off my tongue. He must have found it hilarious because his laugh suddenly erupted again.

Would it be crazy if I said that I liked his laugh? Or would that be too pansy of me?

“So you really don’t have any nice words for gays? Poofter I can understand, but poo-jabber? You know what, I don’t even want to know,” he chuckled, wiping away a couple of tears that formed at the creases of his eyes. Hell yeah. I so happened to have spotted that. (And the one to have caused it.)

“Come on, you sheepshaggers probably have worse ones,” I joked.

“Yes, but you don’t hear them often. I don’t know what Aus is like, but we sure don’t have that much prejudice against gays,” he explained. Actually, I was surprised as fuck that he didn’t say anything about my use of ‘sheepshagger.’ I was actually looking forward to him disagreeing and flinching at the word. But guess not. Maybe he was used to it?

“Aw, come on. Just name a few,” I pried, throwing the best pout I could. He laughed at that (fuck yeah! I’m really making him laugh tonight!) and took a sip.

“Erm...Let’s see... Gay bow, ringlord... uhh.... bum bandit?”

“Bum bandit? Where the fuck did that come from?” I laughed. They weren’t nearly as bad as ours but hell, I had to be honest, ringlord sounded fucking beaut. Marco joined in with the laughing too and not even fucking bothered to explain it to me. Not that it really mattered anyway.

“Well then, what do you call yourself?” He questioned. And holy fuck, did it throw me off guard. I didn’t expect him to carry on with the topic once our laughter died down. I was thinking he’d carry on about the flatting thing. But nope. Marco Bott had fucking surprised me again.

“A total stud,” was all I replied. I couldn’t help but smirk as I took a sip. I even kept my eyes well trained on him and made sure we didn’t lose eye contact.

“Are you sure about that?” He teased. He actually fucking teased me. Holy damn. Once I got him comfortable enough he turned out to be one fucking awesome guy. _Holy shit._

“Well, that’s what they called me at parties,” I explained. He sent me a gentle smile (a fucking gentle smile. You know. A really nice one but not that fucking bright as usual) before replying.

“So, you went to high school parties?”

“... You didn’t?” I asked.

“Well.... honestly...” he mumbled as a faint blush crept onto his cheeks. Was he actually fucking blushing!? “Not really... I mean, I went to the ball and stuff... but no weekend parties.”

“God Marco, you’re a nerd aren’t ya?” I wasn’t really meaning it as an insult. And even if he was a bit of a fucking nerd, that was okay. Blondie was a nerd too.

“I can’t say no to that.... Obviously you weren’t?” He blushed even a darker shade of red. So dark that the faint freckles I saw with the bad lightening disappeared. Was he embarrassed about this? I swear he even started nibbling at his bottom lip. Whoa. He was so fucking cute.

“Damn right. But I was smart enough to pass classes _and_ go to parties,” I boasted, crossing my arms and sending him my own shit-eating grin. (Well... if you consider near fails and all-nighters with the blondie as passing classes.)

“I see,” he smiled. He actually smiled. He seemed to go quiet after that for a while. And at first I was so unsure of why he would but then it fucking hit me. It was a question that never came to my mind because we were obviously drinking the shit that would cause it.

“Oh dear god. Don’t tell me you’ve never been drunk before,”

“What... no... I mean... I have once or twice... but nothing crazy or anything,” he stammered. He actually nearly stuttered too. Oh my god. Was he inexperienced!? An odd nineteen-twenty year old that was inexperienced in hardcore drinking? I really fucking hit the jackpot on this one. (And I swear, the thought of ‘goody-two-shoes’ never crossed my mind. I fucking swear, okay!?)

“Holy fucking shit. Are you serious?”

“Yes....?” He bit his bottom lip and sent me a strange face. To be honest, he looked a bit confused more than anything else.

“Holy fuck. Alright, tell you what Marco Bott. Why don’t we get drunk together? Like absolutely fucking smashed,” I suggested. Hey, if this guy had never been pissed as hell, then I sure as fucking hell wanted to see it. Hell yeah! Actually, I was almost too fucking keen for my own good to see him drunk.

“What? No! We can’t, not tonight. Maybe.... tomorrow night? When we don’t have to wake up early or anything,” he answered frantically. Funniest thing was he sounded so fucking flustered. Like he sounded keen for it but he also sounded so fucking nervous.

“Sounds like a good fucking deal, yeah?” I nodded. “Same time and same place?”

“Sure,” he smiled timidly. Yeah. He looked worried as fuck. But like that was going to stop me. I was just so fucking glad that he agreed to meet again. Even if the following day was going to be jam packed with touristy shit.

And the greatest of fucking all was that I finally got somewhere with him. We somehow broke that awkward tension and flew straight into a ‘comfortable’ zone. And although I knew I should have gone back to the original topic the first time I screwed up, I was glad as fuck I didn’t. Only because now I had another ‘date’ (okay so maybe he didn’t know it was a date) with him and that’s all that fucking mattered.

“Shall we head on up?” He broke my train of thought. I had to quickly shake my head to get whatever crazy ideas out of my brain. Right. We were meant to meet the others. Forgot about that. Shit.

I ended up grunting a reply while I stood. I had checked my watch and it was already just past ten. And knowing just the littlest of fucking bits about Marco, I knew he was an early sleeper. Or something like that. And by the sounds of it, he was going to sleep early tonight, probably. God, what an actual fucking nerd. And a really cute one too. (Holy fuck that sounded so cheesy. What the hell was he doing to my fucking manhood!?)

 

-

 

The walk up to Deck 12 was quiet but comfortable. And if I had to be honest to god, I perved at his ass more than I should have. Sure, I was being a fucking gentlemen and letting him lead the way. But that was only so I could see that glorious ass in those tight black jeans and oh-

_Oh god._

If I kept thinking like that I knew as fucking hell that I’d crack a fat. And the thought of that only made me sweaty as fuck. (Wait, screw that thought. I’d been sweating as much as that awkward lanky bloke all night.) It also reminded me that I haven’t wanked in fucking ages and I was in dire fucking need of a release if I wanted to keep myself in check around this guy. Out of the all shit that I’ve been seeing lately, I’m fucking amazed that I’ve lasted eight days without going at it. This was the longest I’ve fucking been without a release and holy shit, I deserved a fucking award.

Of course I didn’t linger too long on that thought until I was rudely fucking interrupted by a blast of music. Right. Marco probably opened the door leading to the outside deck.

Now, I may have said before during that one evening when I got wasted (you know, the one where I got fucking pushed over) that the deck and allocated dance floor was crowded. You know what. Scratch fucking that. Because that night doesn’t even fucking compare to what the whole deck looked like at that moment. _Mother of god_. There were flashing lights and everything. The music was blasting (and fucking up my ears) and people were actually dancing like they were in a fucking club and not on a ship. The bar was so crowded that it was too obvious no one was going to get booze anytime soon. How the fuck did so many people even like techno music!? Better yet, how the fuck was I going to find the others!? Holy shit!

I had to wonder how many of these dipshits were going to be so hungover the following day that they won’t even get off the ship to see Darwin? What the actual fuck man!? Did any of these people have sense at all!? (Don’t you dare mention how I suggested Marco to get drunk with me. Don’t you fucking dare.)

“Wow!” Marco shouted over the music. I barely heard him over the blasting music and if I wasn’t perving intently as I was, I would have lost him in the crowd and flashing neon lights. “So many people!” He tried again when he finally turned to me.

I just nodded a reply because I sure as hell knew he would not hear me. (And I sure as fucking hell did not want to lose my voice for even trying) Instead he just sent me one of his iconic smiles and took the lead. Not going to lie, I fucking stressed out when he started walking away without even saying anything. (I seriously thought he was ditching me! Who could blame me!?) And just like the previous night I tried to grab hold of his wrist. But you all know me and my fucking luck. I have the worst (wait no, scratch that. _The best_ ) fucking luck. Because by some mother fucking miracle (I’m going to guess god was in charge of this or some shit) I misjudged and before I even knew it I was grabbing onto something I sure as hell fucking shouldn’t have.

And that, my dear readers, is how I fucking touched for the first time Marco Bott’s left _ass_ cheek. (I was aiming for his left wrist, I swear!) Sure. It may have been an accident (seriously it was!) but I sure as hell did not miss the opportunity to squeeze. (Who could fucking blame me? I had spent the whole time perving at it while we walked to Deck 12. The last thing I would have been able to do in that moment is _not_ give it a slight squeeze. His ass was fucking hot. Not as hot as his face, but definitely fucking hotter than his tan.) Forgive me, Marco. And even fucking more importantly, Karma. Just allow me to enjoy this one fucking accident without having any penalties.

Obviously Marco didn’t quite approve because holy shit, he actually fucking jumped. No, he fucking leaped a metre ahead. So far that he even shoved some drunken dipshits to the ground. I of course found his reaction hilarious as fuck as I barked out laughter. And sure as hell, a bright blush covered his whole face; from his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. Oh lords have mercy on me. _Please._

“It was an accident!” I tried to explain, but instead he pouted ever so slightly. Holy damn. Those lips looked... oh god. No. Jean. Don’t.

“Aye! It’s pina colada boy again!”

When I turned around at the call of that stupid nickname, I realised that the blond bloke (Reiner, I think his name was?) was standing not even a metre away from me. He looked sweaty as and I swear to god his shirt was fucking wet. Not that I could blame him. The heat of everyone dancing in a crowd and the humidity that hung thick in the air was almost hot enough to fucking burn anyone alive.

“The hell did you just call me, sheepshagger?” I taunted. Like hell I was going to let him call me that name again! He flashed me a crooked grin at that and before I knew it he was standing in front of me. And holy shit. The glare he sent in was enough to make me fucking sweat buckets like his lanky boyfriend.

Did I ever mention this guy is ripped? Cause he is fucking ripped and bulky and holy shit. I could fucking bet a hundred dollars that this guy was some kind of rugby player or some shit. He was even fucking taller than me!

“Reiner!” Marco’s voice distracted us as he pushed his way towards us.

“I didn’t realise you were _serious_ about hanging out with the pina colada boy again,” Reiner’s loud and booming voice teased over the music.

“Yeah... anyway, where are the others?” Marco completely ignored his comment. Whoa. How the hell did he just ignore it!? If this big bulky bloke was my friend, I’d have teased him fucking back. This guy was a saint, holy shit.

“Over at the bar. Annie was about to look for you,” Reiner explained. I could see him glaring at me from the corner of his eye and honestly, I was internally shitting myself. This guy was fucking sketchy of me since the previous night and finally being able to hear how he talked and taunted to not only me but his fucking mate too, scared the living shits out of me.

“Ahh, yeah. We have to get up early, aye?” Marco chuckled and scratched his cheek. Wait...? Did Marco want to spend more time with me? Seriously!? Oh my fucking god! Fucking hell yeah! I seriously must have done something right! Another score to Jean Kirstein! Fuck yeah!

“I’ll see you again tomorrow, ya reckon?” I asked. Marco suddenly smiled at that and I swear (and hell no, it wasn’t just the fucking flashing lights) his eyes brightened.

“Sure! Have a good day at Darwin!” He agreed. He was the first to walk off and I sure as fucking hell did not miss the warning gaze Reiner gave me as he followed his mate. He probably thought I was one crazy as fucking stalker. Not that I could blame him... I mean, if I placed the blondie in Bertl’s (or whatever the lanky bloke’s name was) position, I’d be like a fucking hawk and pounce whoever the fuck the stalker was.

And at the mention of the blondie, I quickly headed to the bar. I had a feeling I’d find him and that blond-stud there again. And sure as hell, they were. Surprisingly Connie, Sasha and Mikasa were with them and they were obviously having a fucking ball by the way they all laughed. Now the only question was, where the fuck was that shit-stain? The last two days he’s been surprisingly quiet and while under normal circumstances I’d be fucking celebrating, but right now I was maybe just a little curious. Okay, screw that. I wanted to know what the deal was. Where the hell did he keep disappearing off to? Could he have actually found some unfortunate chick to hook up with him?

“Jean!” Connie called when he noticed me. I shoved my way through the crowd until I was standing between Armin and Connie. “Hey man! Where have you been?” He asked. The smell of his breath made me one-hundred-percent sure that he was wasted and by the looks of his blue lips, it told me it was by some pretty fucking strong stuff.

“Chatting up with Marco,” I crossed my arms.

“How did it go this time?” Armin giggled. He was fucking giggling. Clearly he had been drinking too which stunned me the most. He knew that we were waking up early the following day, so why the hell was he getting drunk?

“Ace! I’ve got another date after dinner tomorrow.”

“Good for you, man!” Connie cheered.

I hung around for a little while but grew just a little bored after I realised that I was too sober for whatever they wanted to talk about. I of course didn’t miss how the blond-stud had a tight arm around Armin’s waist and again I was hit by a pang of jealousy. Fuck! No. My time would come. I would get there. Judging by Marco’s reactions, I’d get there soon. (And far quicker than I thought the previous night) Hell yeah!

“I’m heading back,” I announced after Sasha came back to the group with two fruit cocktails. As tempting as it was to drink and join in the party, I seemed to have formed much better plans for what I could do in an empty cabin. And the reminder of the pressure in my pants I had when walking to the deck only tempted me more. Hell yeah. I could really use the alone time.

“See ya!” Sasha and Connie cheered.

“Set the clock for eight-thirty, please!” Armin called after me once I said my goodbyes. I just gave a wave as I walked away. Eight-thirty? Was he fucking kidding me? Would he or any of the other drunken dipshits even be alive by then?

 

-

 

The quietness of the cabin was a nice change in pace. Fuck, scratch that. It was perfect. Quiet. Empty. Yeah.... It would work out well.

After taking off my sweaty clothes, I realised I was in need of another shower. Apparently I didn’t just sweat lightly, I sweated bucket loads and I almost felt fucking ashamed to have walked past these hot chicks in the hallways without knowing there was a huge wet stain on my shirt. Fuck!

The hot water was soothing on my back and I felt so fucking relieved to finally get rid of the sticky feeling of the sweat. I ended up resting my forehead against the wall as the water fell down into my hair down my shoulders. Fuck, the water was good. And knowing that no one was in the cabin made it even better. I could take my sweet ass time doing the _thing_ I have missed so fucking much.

Obviously I realised I shouldn’t have left it for this long when only after two tugs I was already hard and aching for more. The feeling of my fingers gripping just at the right pressure around my hard dick was enough to send me off to a good rhythm. Back and forth. Squeezing just enough at the head before loosening my grip and sliding it all the way down to the base. _Oh god._ It had been far too fucking long.

I didn’t spend a long time concentrating on the rhythm before images of Marco popped into my head. Those lips, pink and inviting. The way he sucked that straw. That glorious soft ass of his. God... The things I would do to him if I ever got him in my bed. And before I even realised it, I was screwing my eyes shut tightly as I imaged his freckled hand around me instead. He was pumping it at the right speed to send me off to ecstasy. Eventually I had found myself thrusting into my waiting hand instead. I couldn’t stop the pants that came out of my mouth as I carried on jerking my dick. And as I felt the pressure build up in the pit of my stomach and the tightening in my balls and groin, a soft, mewl of Marco left my mouth.

Yeah... _Marco_.

My legs were beginning to give out under me, but I grabbed onto the metal rail on the wall to hold myself up. This only allowed me to pump my cock even faster as my head filled with dirtier fantasies. The things I’d have done to him if he was in that shower with me were enough to make me moan. I’d have grinded against his own aching cock until he begged for more. And it scared me just how eagerly I would have been to suck him off to his own finish. How I’d suck on his balls and lick my way up under his long and throbbing cock. And I’d tease that head of his, all the while never taking my eyes off that fucking glorious freckled face of his. It’d probably be the same shade of pink he was wearing tonight... And I’d suck him hard and deep until he moaned for more.

I wanted to know what his face looked like when he felt such pleasure. The way he’d furrow his brows and scream out my name, begging for release. My breath grew shallow as I panted his name. It felt so fucking good that I didn’t know if I could take the pressure anymore. My balls felt so tight that I had to hold back so hard not to release in an instant

Marco.... _Fuck_...

And before I knew it I felt it coming, all the way from my balls to the base of my dick.... I didn’t dare to slow down my hand.  I needed the release so fucking badly. I smashed my forehead even harder into the wall, crying out his name as I released. The pressure of finally coming for only mere seconds felt so fucking satisfying. I saw stars behind my eyes rather than his face and all I could do was whine. And I kept milking myself to extend the afterglow feeling of my orgasm and the emptiness I felt in my stomach. Far out... _Marco._

I was left panting heavily against the shower wall and only faintly aware of my come slowly being washed away by the water. After a couple minutes I finally pulled away with my legs jelly-like and feeling the familiar empty and relieved feeling of doing the deed. _Fuck yeah_... It felt so good. If thoughts of Marco had made me feel so good, I could hardly even comprehend what the actual fucking guy would do.

After a couple more minutes, I ended up turning off the water and climbing out of the tiny shower. I had dried myself off lazily and pulled up a pair of grundies. That shower was probably the best one I had all fucking week while being on the ship. And the next best thing was to finally get in bed and having a decent sleep before walking my legs off.  Breathing another huge sigh of relief, I opened the bathroom door to a cool cabin room and wrapped the towel lazily around my neck as I rounded the corner.

“Who’s Marco?” Was enough to stop me dead in my tracks.

Fuck. Oh shit fuck. _No_. Noooo. I guess I had spoken too fucking soon. You know... about that mother fucking bitch called Karma whom decided to fucking smack me in the face again. Fuck you, Karma! Was this your punishment from when I grabbed onto Marco’s ass!? Why? Why the fuck did it have to be that shit-stain who heard it!? Why!!!?

“Where the fuck have you been, Jaeger?” I completely ignored his question as I walked towards the alarm clock to set the time Armin requested.

“Oh... Just y’know... Out and about... trying to get laid and stuff,” I saw him waving his arm in the corner of my eye. He was lying on his top bunk of the bed and that only made me more fucking embarrassed. How long had he been in the cabin room? What if he heard all of it? Shit!

“Who the fuck would be interested in you?” I scoffed at the idea. I gave my hair one last rub before I walked back around the corner to hang my towel. The short distance away from the shit-stain gave me just a few seconds to calm my fucking blood. I couldn’t look embarrassed in front of that shit-stain. Fuck no! No way in hell was I going to let him see me red. Instead I took a deep breath and walked around the corner again.

“Well obviously someone who does the wank for me, unlike a horse-face who still uses their right hand,” his fucking laugh filled the cabin. That mother fucking shit eater. How dare he. How fucking dare he!

“So, who is this unfortunate chick?” I asked as I turned off the main lights and headed towards my bed.

“Like I’d ever tell you,” he snorted and shifted in bed while I climbed into my own.

I was going to reply some kind of cocky comment, but I found myself holding it back. Was there seriously someone interested in the shit-stain? How could that fucking be? Out of all the years I’d known him at high school he never got a date. (As far as I knew, anyway) So there sure as fucking hell was no way he could find an easy lay. Not with his crazy as moods. And that’s when it hit me. It was the thing Armin and I had joked about after the cocktail class. But there’d be no way. The shit-stain was straighter than a fucking pole.

“Ten bucks that it’s that agro man,” I ended up taunting after the room was dark for however many minutes.

And the most annoying thing was, he never replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that kind of happened without really planning it. I’m.... sorry? I realised I had no idea how to write that kind of stuff in first person. I hope it was decent enough! 
> 
> But finally Jean and Marco are on some good grounds! Can’t wait to write more of their interactions!
> 
> Next chapter they’ll be porting at Darwin! Woohoo!
> 
> Disclaimer: Again, I apologise for the homosexual slurs. I don’t mean any offense at all. Surprisingly enough, some are legit nicknames that people use over here.
> 
> The song I was listening to while the Deck 12 scene was: Summertime - Refresh (ekowraith remix)
> 
> Thank you to thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for being my beta readers! You two are so amazing and ahhh! Thank you!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Popsicle – flavoured ice block  
> Footy – google it.  
> Rugby – google it  
> Donger – penis  
> Fruit loop - fool  
> Ace – excellent  
> Ball – prom  
> Crocks - crocodiles  
> Crack a fat – boner. I’ve only ever heard this being used once. Thought I might as well use it.


	7. Darwin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos, hits and bookmarks!!! It makes me extremely happy to see people are enjoying this story! Ahh! Thank you so much!
> 
> They’re porting at Darwin in this chapter! I’ve never been to Darwin, but I’ve heard that it’s really pretty and cultural! And apparently they only have two seasons! Dry and wet! Sadly, the cruise ports there during the wet season which means pretty hot temperatures with chances of clouds, rain showers and evening thunderstorms.
> 
> The locations the characters went to are all real places and at the end chapter notes, I’ll give some more information about it that wasn’t mentioned in the chapter!
> 
> Anyway! Sit back, relax and enjoy the trip to Darwin! It’s going to be hell of a long one.

_Day 9 – 10  
_ _In which Jean spends the day in Darwin._

* * *

  

The morning of Thursday (January 9th) was rough. No, fuck that. It was awful _and_ fucking rough. I blame the fucking temperamental weather of whatever the fuck Darwin had.

I had noticed just slightly the previous night when I had climbed into bed that the motion of the boat had gotten worse. But little did I, or anyone for that fucking matter, know that it would get even choppier.

The alarm clock that went off was like a fucking sigh of relief. I didn’t know how much longer I could have survived lying in bed after a rough night. And only within an hour of that strange fucking sensation of being asleep but being awake did it finally calm down a touch.

Eventually the annoying screeching of the alarm got too much to handle and I turned it off. Armin was still in his bed and as soon as I turned on the main lights he flung the blankets over his head. Not that I could fucking blame him or anything. Surprisingly enough Connie and Eren were already awake and were climbing down from the beds.

“God, what an awful night,” Connie groaned as he stretched.

“Thank god we’ll be on land in an hour’s time,” I agreed. “Armin, get your ass out of bed. Time to get up.”

“No, let me sleep. We don’t port until nine,” his faint voice protested.

“Since when do you ask for more sleep, Armin?” Eren laughed as he grabbed hold of the covers that were on top of Armin.

“Since I had little to no sleep,” the blondie complained. To be honest he looked like he had the least fucking sleep out of all of us. His crazy bed hair only completed his fucked up look.

“What time did you even come back, man?” Connie yawned and headed around the corner to the bathroom. I decided it was a good time to get ready for the day. Sure, I was curious as fucking ever to know too, but clothes and breakfast sounded better at that moment.

“Three? I don’t even know,” Armin finally got out of his bed.

“At least that’s five hours of sleep,” Eren added. Armin just nodded at that and turned to face me as I pulled on my shirt. I sure as hell did not miss that sheepish glance he gave me.

The hardest part was choosing what to fucking wear. Was it going to humid as fuck? Was it going to be rainy as fuck? In the end I decided to go with whatever board shorts would be suitable to swim in and a t-shirt with sneakers.

“Should we wait for the big rush before heading off?” He finally questioned. I just nodded and gathered up my things.

“What are you doing today, Eren?” Armin asked once he was getting ready too.

“Mikasa and I ended up booking for Crocodylus Park,” he nonchalantly replied. I froze at that. Isn’t that what Marco was doing today?

“God, horse-face. No need to look that jealous,” the fucking shit-stain taunted. Oh, fuck you fucker. I was not jealous. I was just fucking surprised. That’s all.

“Don’t tell me that Marco’s going there today?” Armin pondered. Shit. Fuck! Why did Armin have to open his big fucking mouth and ask that right in front of the shit-stain!? Screw fucking you, blond-turd. I was no way in hell going to go easy on you now! Who cares if you’re fucking tired.

“Seriously, who is Marco?” Eren questioned.

“No one,” I blurted out. I quickly stood and got out two bottles of water for the day.

“Oh come on. Not just _anyone_ could make a horse-face like you neigh as loudly in the shower.”

That mother fucking shit-eating fucking shit-stain. How fucking dare he. That shit-eating grin he wore made me want to fucking punch him in balls. And what was even fucking worse was that both Armin and that fucking baldy, Connie had snorted at his cocky comment. Fucking hell!

“I hope you cleaned the shower, man,” Connie teased as he entered the room again. “I don’t want any of your horse-sprog on my shit.”

“Shut up you dipshits!” I yelled. I seriously could not fucking stop the blush that turned my face hot and red. Fucking wankers! Instead they all fucking laughed even louder at my retort. Stupid fucking wankers!

Eventually the laughter died down and we all finished gathering our things. We also stopped by Mikasa and Sasha’s room before heading our way to the buffet for breakfast. This time they were still in the cabin (by the looks of Mikasa’s face, there was a good fucking reason for it) and Sasha nearly fucking trampled us at the doorway when she heard the mentions of breakfast. Holy fuck. How the hell was she so energetic with such little sleep?

 

-

 

Breakfast was amazingly fucking good as always. I saw Marco and his mates along the way to the empty table we had found. And of course I did not miss the awkward eye contact with Bertl and even the fucking death glare I got from Reiner. And the fucking irony of it all was they had the chocolate danish pastries as the ‘day’s special’ again. That only made the whole morning much fucking better. It felt so much like that first porting day in Brizzie that I almost wanted to fucking cry.

“Let’s plan to meet at the wave lagoon at one,” Armin had suggested once everyone headed towards the special waiting area to get off the ship. After breakfast the blondie looked so much fucking better that even I was celebrating for him. He finally looked like himself again and while I should have leaped for fucking joy when he wasn’t looking all that great, (because that meant not a hell a lot of walking) I was just relieved he looked better. Okay, maybe only a little relieved.

“Deal!” Sasha agreed.

“Sounds good,” Mikasa added.

That meant Armin was giving him and myself only three and half hours to explore Darwin. That sounded like one fucking intense sightseeing mission. Holy fucking shit. Could we actually do it?

And as usual, it took a fucking long and annoying time to even get off the ship. Apparently even with nearly half of the fucking cruise drinking themselves sick the previous night, they still wanted to do touristy shit on shore. Not that I could blame them. I was aching to get off the ship and get my feet on some land. Only because the last time we had ported we spent the whole day on another fucking boat and I highly doubt that counted as being ‘on shore.’

And only after we went through x-ray scans we finally went down the loading hallway and down onto a long wharf. (Or was it a jetty? I don’t even fucking know?) And only after finally standing on the concrete of the wharf did I remember something that I totally fucking forgot about. You know... that little detail I may have mentioned whenever we ported. The whole ‘being able to feel the motion when on land’ thing. Yeah. That. Fucking that shit. I still felt like I was on a fucking boat and holy damn it was worse than before. The day in Darwin was going to one fucking long and tiresome one. Damn it! And by the looks of Mikasa’s green face, I just fucking knew she was feeling it as bad as me.

Once we got out of the wharf building, the humidity hit me like a fucking wave and I nearly drowned. Seriously. Thankfully it wasn’t raining but only cloudy. Not a single fucking blue part in the sky, just a bunch of dumbass clouds. Oh well. At least I knew I wouldn’t get my face burnt off. At that point I had checked my phone lazily to check the temperature and I nearly fucking fell face first to the ground. 35 fucking degree Celsius. What the fuck. It felt so much fucking hotter than that!

Only once we were outside for a while we realised we were on the opposite side of where we wanted to go. (Or, as Armin explained it to me; where our bus stop was) And only after watching where all the other people were going, we all decided to follow them. We separated from Mikasa and Eren (as they were catching a special bus to their location, fucking lucky shits) by the wharf and followed the other passengers. We ended up walking along this make shift walkway built on rocks at the lower end of the sea. I don’t even know how to fucking explain this shit to you dipshit readers.

Think of a shore. Two walkable and drivable wharfs (or is it a jetty? Seriously, Armin never got round to teaching this shit to me) forks extending from either side to somehow create a circle. But the two ends of the wharfs don’t meet. So we had to walk along the wharf and then along the man-made walkway. But on the other side of the walkway (when you look at the city) there was a giant lagoon with a park just beyond it. (If this fucking shit made any sense to you, congratulations, because it sure as hell did not to me when I read it again) Cool? Sure, if lagoons were your kind of thing. Fun? Fuck no! It meant walking in fucking humidity aka, sweating my fucking ass off.

Armin whipped out his map (seriously, where the fuck did he get all these maps?) from his backpack while we walked. I could never understand how he could walk and read a map at the same time, but if I had to take a wild guess, it was like texting and walking.

“So, we’re going to walk to the civic centre, I think,” he mumbled.

“That doesn’t make any sense to me, Armin,” I replied, taking off my cap and waving it around my face. Seriously. I was already fucking sweating.

“We’re going to walk past the wave lagoon and... You know what, just follow me,” he decided.

And the truth was, yes, we did walk past the wave lagoon (or pools or whatever) and then into the inner city. After the wave lagoon we eventually separated from Connie and Sasha as they had their own shopping and sightseeing day planned.

And the relief of getting into an air-conned bus was like fucking heaven and knowing that we’d be riding in it for a decent half an hour only made things so much fucking better.

“Are you sure that we can go to Charles Darwin National Park instead of the mall?” Armin affirmed sometime during the ride. I just gave him a snort.

“Yeah, whatever’s fine,” I replied. Before we got off the ship, Armin did a re-check on all the places we would go and what busses we had to take. Of course, the blond-turd was eager as an eager beaver to explore the park Erwin had told him about the previous night. But I sure as fucking hell did not. There was no way in hell I’d spend an hour walking through a park again. And hell no, I didn’t even care if there were World War shit placed around the park. But for some fucking reason my mouth decided to say ‘fine’ instead of ‘hell no’ when the blond-turd first asked. Why did I even fucking do this to myself? Oh right, because I had to thank him for being my wingman. Not that he needed any thanking since he owed it to me.

“Are you agreeing because you need another favour?” Armin asked skeptically. I just waved my arm and chuckled.

“More like I’m thanking you.”

I didn’t care at this point that I was being nicer to Armin than I usually was. He owed me that wingman thing, but then that annoying blond-stud had come along and help as well and the least I could have fucking done was repay him via Armin. Or something like that. I don’t even know why I was fucking doing this. Armin ended the conversation with just a light nod and pulled out his cellphone. I ended up doing the same. Having reception and internet again was a dream. There was so much shit I had to catch up on.

After not long we reached our stop at ten and that’s when we realised we still had more walking to do. God. The blond-turd was going to pay! You know what; maybe he fucking owed me for all of this after all. Thankfully the walk was short and before I could even begin to complain we saw the building in sight.

The air-conned building was so fucking nice that I actually didn’t care that Armin suddenly turned on his ‘photography spaz’ and ‘historic spaz’ modes on. At least it meant I could enjoy the coolness of the buildings. Hell yeah!

There wasn’t much to the museum. (And art gallery. Did I ever mention that it was a fucking art gallery too? I don’t normally care for artwork, but there were some amazing stuff in there.) It was just like any other museum I had the unfortunate chance of going to. It just had an insanely amount of World War and cultural stuff.  Although, I will make mention of this fucking cool as stuffed crock we found around the animal section.

The pose they had it in was fucking amazing and since not a lot of people were around (and there were no barrier at fucking all) we decided to make use of it and Armin’s camera. At first Armin was a little reluctant, but after I climbed onto the stuffed crock and got a picture taken, the blondie was begging me to take a couple. Some of the shots we got were fucking hilarious. We even asked another tourist at some point to take a picture of both of us on it.

Well, that was until we saw a security guard walking by. I hopped off that thing so fast and ran like our fucking life depended on it. Which it did, ‘cause there was no way in hell I was wanting to get caught humping a crock. (Needless to say, Armin actually got a good fucking shot of it too. Possibly one of the best of me from the whole fucking trip.)

 

-

 

Just after eleven we stopped by the cafe where we bought ourselves sandwiches for lunch. (Not before going into the souvenir shop. I could have sworn Armin bought a little more than he usually did for his grandpa. But I didn’t really fucking care. Maybe it was for himself or some shit?) Armin and I made a mutual agreement that we’d save our lunch for our walk at the park instead of enjoying them in the cooled room. (Why!? Why the fuck did I even agree to this shit!?) And before I even knew it we were waiting outside for the taxi that Armin called for. Taxi was the best option for us. Either we took an hour by bus or a short fifteen minute taxi ride. (That cost us a fucking arm and a leg, but who the fuck even cared? We were on holiday!)

By the time we got there, it was still cloudy and hot as fuck. Thank god we were blessed with not a single rain drop. I was already through an entire water bottle and was disappointed in myself for not grabbing a soda at the cafe. (And only for a split second in the back of my mind did I think about how we were about to walk in a fucking giant park at the fucking hottest part of the day. Why the fuck did I even agree to this shit!?) Armin didn’t even waste a single second before he walked off along the trail for walkers.

Let me tell you, this park was fucking huge. I don’t know what was more amazing; the amount of trees or how green the fucking grass was. I guess with the amount rain they get during the wet season, it’s pretty obvious there would be colour at times unlike other parts of the country.

At some point between eleven and twelve, we found two World War two bunkers. All of which Armin went fucking crazy for. He even forced that fucking heavy as camera in my hands again and begged me to take photos. I could never have said no or find a way out of it, so I did as I was told. The amount of stuff he posed with was crazy. How the hell was this stuff even interesting to him? Best part of holding the fucking camera was conning him into riding on one of the torpedoes. And I swear to god, this was the best picture of Armin from the fucking trip. (Well, second best more like it.)

Eventually the heat got too much for the both of us, so we headed towards the picnic location. Thank god there were shade and picnic tables to make everything better. I swear, my shirt was fucking soaked with sweat and I sure as hell couldn’t wait to get to the wave pools to wash it all off. (Don’t you fucking dare tell me how nasty that was. Walking around in a wet shirt was fucking nasty, okay!?)

Even the blondie looked like he was melting from the heat. His blond hair was sticking to his face and it almost (okay, screw that, it did a lot) reminded me of the after scenes of our blows in bed. His bright cheeks didn’t help anything at all either to remind me of the faint memories I still had of it.

“The view is so nice,” he murmured, looking out towards the city. I had to agree with him, the view from the picnic spot was pretty good. Obviously the park organisers or whatever chose the best location to set down the tables.

I ended up humming a reply and resting my head back onto my backpack. The sounds of cicadas singing in the trees above us, the smell of someone’s barbie some distance away and the ever so slight breeze was heaven. The shade and the rocking of boa-fuck, I still felt like I was on a ship. Anyway, the shade was nice too. It was so relaxing that I swear I fell asleep for a couple of minutes. Or something like that, anyway. I was a little surprised that Armin hadn’t brought up the topic of Marco and what I was going to do next. But I figured that he’d bring it up on a later time and I was sure as hell ready to tell him my next move.

Obviously Armin had left me alone to sleep because by the time he shook me awake he told me it was time to catch a taxi. At least the walk down the winding road to the drop off zone wasn’t too bad. Nor was the ride to the wave pools.

 

-

 

“Guys!” Sasha waved us down once we arrived at the wave lagoon. “How was the museum?”

“Amazing! The historic sections were so interesting. Oh and there was this stuffed crocodile and Jean decided to pose with it,” Armin giggled, flashing his camera screen towards Sasha and Connie. They all laughed at my poses with the crock and to be honest, I was damn fucking proud of it. We made idle chat until Connie spotted the shit-stain and his step-sister.

“Hey guys!” Eren yelled, almost fucking jogging up towards us. Holy damn he was so fucking eager. Not that I could blame him. I was killing to get into a pool too.

“Eren! How were the crocodiles?” Armin questioned, turning his gaze towards the shit-stain and Mikasa.

“Ace! I even got to pet one! Look, Mikasa took a pic,” he showed us his own photo. I was a little disappointed to see that it was only a fucking tiny crock. Probably some kind of reptile or some shit (I don’t even fucking know) and obviously Mikasa had petted one too. Her picture looked much better. She was actually smiling (and she looked like she got over the sickness too.)

“Good to see you still have your limbs, Jaeger,” I observed.

“At least I had the balls to do it, horse-face. Unlike you,” he retorted. Before I could even reply to that, Mikasa shoved the camera into my face.

“Look. I held a snake.”

And holy fuck, did she fucking have a snake on her shoulders. That thing looked fucking massive and heavy. (Surprisingly enough she wasn’t wearing her scarf today. Not that I could blame her.) Their fucking day seemed way more entertaining than Armin and mine and maybe I was just a little jealous that they spent the day at the wildlife park. And that’s when I decided, next time I had the chance, I was sure as hell going to a zoo to do the same.

“Shall we head in? What time do we need to be on the ship again?” Sasha distracted Mikasa and I. Armin hummed while checking his phone.

“It says we’re porting at four. So, let’s head back at three,” he announced.

“Alright! Three hours of swimming, yahoo!” Sasha jumped and before any of us even knew it, she grabbed hold of Connie’s wrist and pulled him along and into the building.

We got given colourful bands around our wrist so that we could walk to the lagoon through a gate. We also bought a locker between twos, just so we could leave all our shit and not worry about it. I was so fucking amazed that all of Sasha’s shopping bags could even fit into such a small locker. I just hoped to god nothing broke. I applied sunblock again ‘cause there was no way in fucking hell that I was going to get burnt again. Even if it was a cloudy day, I was not going to risk it.

And holy damn, the water was like heaven. Fucking absolute heaven.  The main pool was fucking crowded, but that didn’t stop any of us from having a good time and acting like idiots. Connie rented a tube an hour and holy shit; we fought for that thing like mad animals. Well, that was until Mikasa made us take turns whenever the waves started up.

All in all, we spent a decent hour and a bit in the pool until we got too tired. Well, I got too tired. My legs and arms felt like they were going to fucking fall off. Some of the waves were fucking massive and I was just slightly jealous of some of the little sprogs who had boogie boards with them. That looked so much fucking fun. But definitely not as fun as tipping Armin off the tube just before his turn was over. Now that was fun and fucking hilarious (and by the sounds of the slap that echoed when he fell into the water, it fucking hurt.)

We grabbed our towels from the lockers and made our way to the lagoon. Of course most of the good spots under the palm trees were taken so we ended up sharing the shade of a couple of palms trees with this tiny as blonde chick and fucking moody looking dark haired chick. It wasn’t like we were going to bug them or anything. And she sure as hell didn’t need to give us so many fucking death glares. What a fucking bitch.

“Come on Sash, let’s test out the waters,” Connie urged. Sasha looked like she wasn’t in the mood to swim again and by the looks of the amount of snacks she brought along for all of us, she wasn’t about to leave anytime soon. But of course, Connie had other ideas. That fucker. I actually fucking felt sorry for Sasha. Then again, with all the shit Connie has to put up with, she deserved it.

“Connie, let me go!” She screamed her lungs out when Connie hung her over his shoulders. And before any of us could blink, he was running off towards the beach and lagoon.

“Oi! No running!” One of the lifeguards had shouted after them. It was so fucking hilarious. We all laughed so fucking loud that we even got a couple of stares, especially from the two chicks that were under the trees with us. Connie had immediately dropped Sasha into the shallow part of the lagoon and yelled out his apologises. Match made in heaven were truly a fucking great show.

Rest of the hour I spent lazily laying on my towel and checking my phone.  (And I shit you not; I was still fucking rocking like I was on that fucking ship) I had so much shit to catch up on that I didn’t even know where to fucking begin. The shit-stain eventually went to join Connie and Sasha in the water while Mikasa spent her time on her own phone. I think out of all of us, Armin was the only one who spent the time being productive. Well, if you considered sleeping productive, that is. (Shit, I’m using big ass words.)

At some point I grew bored of my phone (and the internet, which was a fucking miracle because who the hell ever got bored on that shit!?) and found Armin on his back, knees bent in the air and feet planted on the towel. His gentle snoring made him so fucking cute that I couldn’t help but bug him. I gently started poking the tip of his nose and soon found my way to his cheeks.

“Go away, Jean,” he muttered, turning away to his side. I chuckled at that decided to leave him alone. Poor blondie, especially since he only had five hours of sleep. Then again, it was his fucking fault. He shouldn’t have tried hanging around the blond-stud for that long. Even I had fucking enough sense to hit the hay, I mean fucking bed, early. I was going to follow his lead and have a snooze myself, but something slightly purple caught my eye.

Holy fucking shit. Was that a hickey? Armin’s hair had hitched up, revealing a light purple bruise just under the hairline. Oh my fucking god, Armin. The blond-stud gave him a fucking hickey!? What the hell were they even doing the previous night!? Did people in their thirties seriously still give fucking hickies?

Totally ignoring Armin’s personal space (because let’s be fucking real, there is no personal space between us) I lightly poked the bruise.

“Don’t you even dare,” he groaned. “Go to sleep or something,” he mumbled. I ended up following his advice and not bothering. The sound of his voice could have only meant one thing for me if I went against his orders: I’d have hell tonight. And I sure as fucking hell did not want that, especially since I had one fucking awesome night planned ahead of me.

 

-

 

Luckily the boarding of the ship was quick enough since hardly anyone was back yet. Surprisingly enough there was a decent amount of people who were still on the ship and even a bigger amount than fucking expected were already drinking. (What the fuck was up with these people?) Anyway, it allowed us to head back into our cabins quickly enough. Sasha had passed us our stuff that we had on a shopping list (since she offered to buy us stuff at the nearest supermarket.)

Craziest thing was when she chucked a bottle of lube towards Connie’s face while he was sitting on the carpeted floor of the cabin. It earned him a fucking nasal as ever snort from the shit-stain and a curious look from Armin and myself.

“Do you know how overpriced this stuff is on the ship? Half price on shore. Talk about a rip off,” Connie explained.

“Seriously? And you didn’t even think to tell us that?” I quirked my brows at him.

“Didn’t think you need a restock,” Connie shrugged his shoulders. Connie’s eyebrows lifted so fucking far up his head when he saw my reaction. “Did you seriously not bring any?”

“Shit, really? Horse-face, you didn’t bring any? You weren’t thinking of getting laid?” Eren chided. I didn’t even reply to that. Instead I just grabbed whatever clothes I could find and headed straight for the shower. The way they were going at it, I fucking knew I would be on the wrong end of the stick. I had to escape before both the fucking shit-stain and baldy mocked my fucking ego. Just because I forgot to bring anything doesn’t mean I wasn’t intending on _not_ getting laid. Screw fucking that. You all should know how fucking keen I was.

“Don’t neigh too loudly in there,” the shit-stain had the fucking cheek to yell once I left. And the fucking laughs of Armin and Connie only made it even more annoying. Those fuckers!

“Shut it, Jaeger!” I yelled back.

 

-

 

After we were all showered, we agreed to head back up to watch the porting (which would be a hell lot more eventful than Port Douglas) and then grab a bite to eat. Dinner wasn’t only until eight and since it was fucking a la carte (thanks for even teaching me that fucking word, blond-stud) I knew I’d be starving. And an empty stomach with an intention of getting drunk was not a good idea. I wanted to stay as sober as long as I could tonight while Marco drunk himself sick. The thought of it made me fucking smirk that even the shit-stain caught sight of it. Damn fucker had the cheek to tease me about it too.

The blond-stud somehow found us in the crowd as everyone look out to the city. Obviously he was one of the last to get back on because holy fuck he was a mess. It sure as hell looked like he had one fucking long day. I swear there were even fucking mud stains on his legs. And holy shit, his hair was even out of place. It was such a fucking shocker to see him in such a mess. Not that it made him any less hot or anything....

And of course he wasn’t alone. God. Of course not. What was I even fucking expecting? The crazy woman, weirdo sniffer man and the agro man all had to come along, looking just as fucking dirty. Except for the agro man. He looked strangely clean in comparison. How fucking strange.

They began idle chatting, but I stayed over by the side to watch the porting quietly. Of course, I was thinking about the freckled boy all the while. I couldn’t help but wonder where he was and how his day was going. And it was just fucking perfect timing when the sudden nervousness hit me. The realisation of wanking off to him the previous night was already hard to not feel fucking guilty as ever about. At least being drunk as fuck would stop that feeling.

The porting went off without a hitch as Armin, Hanji and Mikasa filmed and took pictures of the whole thing. And as we slowly sailed away, I noticed in the distance the dark clouds that sure as fucking hell would form in Darwin around this time of year. And finally sailing out into the deep waters again only reminded me (and probably every fucking one else) what a terrible night sleep we had the previous night. Tonight may just be fucking rough too. Oh well, all the more reason to get wasted. Hell yeah!

After eating a late mid arvo lunch (burgers. Not really the best thing for a ‘light’ meal but screw fucking that. All they had available in the light meals selection were fries and burgers) Armin excused himself with Erwin. And not wanting to be left alone with the bunch of lunatics, I followed them.

Thankfully I didn’t get any death glares from either of the blonds (guess they weren’t going off together to do some strange fucking deed) so I realised perhaps it was okay to have followed them. Surprisingly enough Armin had just led us towards the cabin again and even more shocking, we passed Marco and that fucking lanky bloke when walking down the stairs.

“See you later tonight, Marco,” I called after we passed each other without a word.

“Sure will!” Marco had replied and I swear, I fucking swear, the look on the lanky bloke’s face was priceless. If I haven’t said this before, I will say it again. He still shat his pants every time he saw me. Apparently whatever Marco told him wasn’t enough to let me off the fucking hook. Looks like I was still in the crazy stalker in his eyes.

“Here we go,” Armin had finally announced once we were at our cabin door. Erwin just chuckled as we entered and I swear to fucking god, I saw the look of disgust on his face for just a few fucking seconds before he let out a laugh.

“You weren’t kidding,” he chuckled. I just snorted and walked towards my bed. I had no fucking idea why Armin would have brought him down into our room when the blond-stud had a whole fucking suite to his own on the deck above us.  But hey, oh well.

I stepped out of my thongs and laid flat on the bed. A nap until seven-thirty was one hell of a good idea. And I was about to actually do it until I heard a plastic bag rustling from Armin’s bed. I turned my head to watch Armin hand over something small. And as I mentioned before, Armin bought probably one too many souvenirs at the museum and this is why. It was for the blond-stud. I shit you not. Did he seriously fucking buy something for the blond-stud?

As soon as I realised how red Armin’s cheeks turned, I looked away, not bothering to watch the rest of their exchange. And as soon as I heard a small yelp leave Armin’s mouth and what sounded like a kiss, I was fucking cheering. Thank god I turned away before that.

“See you later, Armin,” Erwin’s voice somehow sounded deeper than it normally did.

“R-right,” Armin squeaked. Oh poor, poor blondie. So fucking flustered. Not that I could blame him because holy hell, if I was just kissed by a fucking hot man as the blond-stud in front of my ex boyfriend, I’d be fucking nervous too.  And suddenly I realised that if I didn’t follow them into the cabin, what would have gone on without any of us knowing?

“Jean,” Erwin said. I just waved my hand, still staring at the wall blankly. There was a soft chuckle and a moving of feet before he was out the door. Armin released a sigh and then the sound of something heavy (probably the blondie himself) landing on a bed.

“What a long day,” Armin mused.

I just hummed a reply. “Yeah, going to be a long night for me too.”

“What? Really?” I heard him shuffling and suddenly the sound of fabric dropping to the ground.

“Yeah, promised Marco that we’d get drunk,” I explained.

“That’s surprising! Think you’ll be able to keep your hands off him?”

“I’ll have to control myself much more than what your blond-stud does.”

Armin laughed at my reply and out of nowhere I got a gentle slap on my shoulder. “Well, he’s surely trying to tell you something if he agreed to drink with you.”

At that I turned to face Armin and only then realised that he was only wearing his grundies as he set the alarm. The view I had was almost too nice. Fuck, scratch that. It was fucking glorious. Armin still had one fucking fine ass. Not as good as Marco’s, but still oh-so fucking fine.

“How’d you get that hickey anyway? Did he give it do you while you sucked him off?” I questioned. I swear his fucking back straightened in a matter of seconds. (Shit, even his ass clenched. What the hell, Armin!?) If I didn’t know any fucking better, I’d say his cheeks were pretty red.

“He’s not that flexible,” Armin stammered, before climbing into the bed.

“So, you did suck him off?” I arched my brow, still watching him as he found a comfortable position in his bed.

“That’s none of your concerns, Jean,” he waved his hand. Like fucking hell it wasn’t my business. There was no way I was going to miss up on the chance of knowing more about the blond-stud.

“Oh come on, you’re not going to share any juicy details?” I taunted.

“Go to sleep, you fruit loop,” Armin groaned, covering his head with the sheet.  I couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. I was laughing so fucking hard that I didn’t even realise he was annoyed at me until I found something hard hit my head.

“You didn’t have to throw the alarm at me, dipshit,” I grumbled, placing it onto the draws that separated our beds. Not long after I climbed into my own bed. The nap would do me good. And the thought of having to see Marco again as soon as I woke up only made me more eager to sleep the time away. Tonight was going to be one hell of a fucking night. Fuck yeah!

 

-

 

Oh god. What a night it was going to fucking be. Armin and I both woke up to an alarm and to the shit-stain changing into his clothes for the evening. But that’s not all. We fucking woke up to a rocking boat. A major fucking rocking boat.

“You guys slept through the roughest part,” Eren reassured, finally pulling a shirt over his chest. Thank fucking god. “After an hour from porting, we had thunder and everything.”

“Really?” Armin grumbled, rubbing his head. I for one was fucking glad we did. The rocking was just as bad as the previous night and I was so fucking happy that we missed the worst part. At least with this rocking I could keep my food down.

“Captain said over speaker that it’ll get smoother as the night goes on,” Eren continued.

“Thank god,” I mumbled, climbing out of the bed. I had to get ready too. And on top of that, I needed to get ready to drink myself fucking sick with the freckled boy.

“Where’s Connie?” Armin asked.

“Sasha and Connie are upstairs. Mikasa is asleep,” Eren explained. “I woke her up though.”

Armin and I followed suit. I threw on whatever dress shirt that looked the least crinkled. Fuck! Weekly washing was going to be a fucking pain in the ass if we ate at that place every night. If only they allowed t-shirts inside.

We didn’t take long until we made our way to the restaurant as per usual. And of course we were met with a group of adults who looked so fucking good. The muddy look they had sporting that arvo was totally gone and now they looked like fucking models again. Except, I could have sworn Hanji looked a little more red than usual. I guess even a marine biologist can get sunburnt... Or something like that anyway.  I sure as hell didn’t miss the gaze the blond-stud threw Armin or the way he wrapped his arm around the blondie’s waist. Fucking show offs. Mark my fucking words, my time will come. By tonight, I will have that Marco guy swooning over me. Hell yeah!

The usual happened. You know, Petra leading us to the table, me slightly bumping Marco’s shoulder along the way (he gave me the funniest fucking look ever) and we ordered whatever. I decided to be different and order myself a beer. Only because I seriously was still fucking thirsty and two glasses of wine and water was not going to fix it. Of course as soon as I ordered one, the shit-stain decided to get one too. (Even after he got the look of disgust from the short agro man who sat across us.)

Rest of the evening went alright. By now I started talking to Mike with the shit-stain and Mikasa. And it turned out he was not that bad of a guy. Mike told us he was one of Erwin’s long-term friends. He even knew the blond-stud before fucking high school. I was fucking amazed by that simple fact because he seemed so fucking normal about it. But I sure as hell did not miss the stolen glances the blond-stud gave him whenever he told us memories of their ‘good-old-days.’ It had me wondering if they ever had a fling like Armin and me. Well, it would be pretty fucking hilarious if there was such a thing. (And the biggest fucking coincidence.)

“So, Armin. What do you have planned for Broome?” Erwin asked once we had our main dinner. The blond-stud sure as fucking hell looked suspicious.  

“We’re going to ride the camels at-” Armin began explaining but then stopped midsentence. “Guys. Did we end up booking the camel ride?”

I laughed so hard at his sudden stumble that I swear some food flew from my mouth and straight into the agro man. And as soon as I felt the sharp kick to my shins, I knew it actually fucking happened. It was a fucking accident! But holy shit did he kick fucking hard!

“Armin, we had to book it when we first booked the cruise, remember?” Mikasa reassured from the end of the table.

It was strange that blondie forgot such a fact. Especially since it was his fucking insisting that made us book the camel ride early as possible. The cruise had booked off the morning camel rides that Broome had to offer and whoever got hold of the bookings first got them. Of course Armin was on that shit back when we had mid-terms. (Okay, this is the part where I tell you that we decided on this whole cruise thing over six fucking months ago. It turns out you got to book a cruise six or so fucking months ahead. Like what the hell? At least it gave us time to save money, but still. Such a huge commitment for six months ahead!) I remember him pulling an all nighter (probably studying or some shit) just to book the camel ride when it was announced. Of course, I’m sure we were all going to be thankful as fuck for everything he did.

“So yes, the camel rides in the morning,” he carried on. “And you, Erwin?”

“We’re going to see the dinosaur footprints!” Hanji interrupted. Erwin let out a throaty laugh as the shit-stain’s eyes popped out. Obviously he hadn’t done his fucking research on Broome. (Or he just didn’t fucking listen when Armin explained it all to us.)

“That’s if the tide is low enough, Hanji,” Erwin affirmed. “We’re also going to stop by the Japanese Cemetery and the museum.”

“You’re not going to cable beach?” I asked.

“We might stop by, yes,” the blond-stud nodded, not once removing his fucking eyes from Armin.

“Don’t swim! There are some pretty nasty little jellyfish this time of the year,” Hanji warned. I swear she was so fucking eccentric that some fucking food flung off her fork and right into Levi’s cheek. The look he fucking gave her was hilarious. And the funniest fucking thing was she wiped it down for him. I sure as hell did not miss the shit-stain laughing quietly (like fucking hushed. What was up with him anyway?) next to me.

 “We’re just riding the camels and spending rest of the day at Cable beach,” Armin stated.

“You’re not doing any sightseeing? Broome has some amazing history behind it,” Erwin wondered.

“I would, but I promised everyone a day at the beach,” Armin replied sadly. He fucking sounded so disappointed. But he was the one who suggested this place to be our beach port. Broome had a fucking glorious beach and who the hell would miss up on that? Oh, of fucking course Armin would.

“Why don’t you tag along with them?” I suggested. Armin quickly turned his head to me and I swear those fucking eyebrows were lifted so high that I couldn’t even find them under his bangs.

“Really?” Armin asked skeptically. “I’m your travel buddy and you’re willing to let me go?”

“Well you obviously don’t want to be stuck on Cable beach all day,” I retorted.

“That sounds like a great plan. We can meet you at Cable beach after your ride,” Erwin quickly planned.

“Are you sure, Jean?” I swear Armin’s eyes were fucking watering from my suggestion. Did he seriously think I wasn’t being fucking serious? I sure as hell did not care that he’d rather go off with his blond-stud. If he really wanted to see some historic shit, then he might as well go with people who wanted to see it too. And it’d give me a break from that fucking heavy as camera.

“Ya. Plus, I’ve got Jaeger over here to entertain me,” I nodded towards the shit-stain on my left.

“Like hell I’m going to hang around you, horse-face. Connie and I are going nude,” Eren snorted.

“Ooooh, that’s right. Cable beach has a nudist part doesn’t it?” Hanji approved.

“You can hang with Mikasa and Sasha,” Eren added.

Trust fucking baldy and the shit-stain to do some dumbass thing like that. I for one would no way in hell go to a nudist beach. Even though it screamed dongar-fest, I sure as fucking hell knew it’d just be a bunch of old bags with hairy and saggy balls. And better yet, I don’t ever want the fucking chance to see either of their dongars too. Actually, I’d prefer to never see the shit-stain’s dongar, at all fucking costs.  

Rest of the dinner went quickly. I stole a couple of glances at Marco and his mates (and fucking awkward stares from Bertl whenever he caught me) but I tried to keep it to a minimal since the agro man kept giving me the fucking creeps. And even though the boat was still fucking rocking, (and noticing Mikasa’s green as fucking face, I knew she was struggling a lot more than any of us. Thank fucking god I wasn’t sitting anywhere near her) I still somehow got the food down and the disgusting wine. And even when it settled in my stomach, I still felt the nervousness of what was going to happen after fill me up.

I thought that maybe I could ask Marco what he was doing in Broome and see if I could hang out with him. Or invite him along to Cable beach. As much fun as spending the day lying in the sand with my two chicks around sounded, I needed more action. And ‘Marco’ action was the stuff I was really looking forward to.

And before I even knew it, we were standing outside the restaurant and stating our plans for the evening. (The blond-stud organised a dinner much earlier for the following day. Like six or something. Only because we had to attempt going to sleep early the following night.) It seemed they were all opting to go watch some cheesy musical again. And I was fucking almost dragged along (even though I told them I had other plans) until Marco and his mates walked out of the restaurant. Oh fucking thank god!

“Marco!” I called. Marco heard me loud and clear (thank fucking god again) and sent me a face with a timid smile. This time I got one hell of a good look of him and sure enough, I did not miss how hot he wore a pink fucking dress shirt. Yes. Fucking pink. And I swear, the first three buttons were undone and holy fucking damn. The crevice between his chest bones were showing and... Lord have mercy on my drunken soul tonight. I pray that I do not hump the living shits out of him. And I sure as hell did not miss how red his fucking cheeks were either. (Looks like he may have gotten sunburned)

I somehow managed to walk out of the group and towards Marco. I could have sworn I heard the shit-stain mumble something about ‘so that’s who Marco is,’ but I sure as hell did not care, even when they were still walking the opposite direction from me. The glares that were given to me from Bertl and Reiner were enough to make me fucking piss my pants, but I ignored it the best I could with my charming smile.

“Want to get going?” I stated rather than asked. I was so fucking ready to get the hell out of here and into our bar. I had been aching to see the freckled boy all day and I was not going to wait any longer.

“...Sure,” he chuckled and followed my lead.

“We’ll be on Deck 12 after the show,” Reiner called out. (And oh fucking god, that sheepshagger accent was still hanging so thick in the air.) I caught Marco waving them down in the corner of my eye and just snorted at his goodbye.

“We still had twenty minutes,” I heard Marco chuckle behind me.  I was going to reply some sarcastic comment but decided to leave it for now. The previous night we left feeling quite comfortable around each other and I sure as fucking hell did not want to fuck it up.

We got to our bar (note, I just fucking said ‘our.’ Hah!) and found Eld as the main bartender again. The area was still rowdy as ever (even though the boat was rocking quite strongly) and surprisingly enough they were playing some pretty outdated fucking music. Okay, I lie. It’s not that outdated. (Okay fine. So who the fuck even cares if they were playing Abba and that a bunch of drunken dipshits were dancing to it? It was just so fucking lame. Oh god.)

“What will it be tonight, gentlemen?” Eld asked.

“Pina colada,” Marco replied, handing over his card.

“Tropical cocktail and two quick fucks,” I added, earning a giant fucking smirk from Eld. I’m sure as fucking hell he realised the innuendo while it flew right over the freckled boy’s fucking head or some shit. God damn. I guess he didn’t hear me properly?

“No Pina colada tonight?” Marco questioned. Right, obviously he just chose to ignore it.

“I think I’ll barf if I have something creamy tonight,” I replied. Which wasn’t true. ‘Cause I was fucking contradicting myself by ordering two quick fucks. For those dipshits who don’t know what quick fucks are; they are these amazingly fucking good shots. Okay, seriously, don’t even fucking judge me for liking sweet shit. Quick fucks are heaven-like shots to get drunk on. And noticing what a fucking sweet creamy tooth Marco has with his pina colada’s, I guessed he’d like them more than the tequila. . Quick fucks are literally irish cream and two other kinds of liqueur shit I don’t even know.

We were silent while we waited for the drinks and I was just slightly freaking out as I tried to think of some way to start up a conversation. I couldn’t take my fucking eyes off of him though. His cheeks were still so red that I could barely see his freckles with the poor lightening. And the way his shirt seemed to have exposed even more of his skin made me fucking celebrate. (Were those freckles on his chest?) And just when I was fucking leaning over closer to him (just to get a small sniff. I swear! I’m not a fucking pervert! His cologne just smelt that fucking good) Eld came back to hand us our drinks and cards.

“...What are those?” Marco asked.

“These are quick fucks,” I handed one to him. He took it gingerly and sniffed it.

“Thought you’d appreciate getting drunk on something sweet,” I flashed the most charming smile I could muster.

“So you were serious?” He raised his eyebrow.

“Of course. You weren’t?” I quickly asked. I didn’t exactly think he’d be lying to me and hoping I’d forget. I seriously fucking thought he was serious and that he’d actually drink himself sick with me.

He nibbled at his bottom lip and then eyed the shot glass again. I swear he looked so fucking unsure. It wasn’t like I was forcing this shit onto him. But, he looked so fucking cute as he tried to make the decision. Oh lord, _Marco._

“Okay. But promise me you’ll help me find my friends if I get too drunk?” He finally agreed. He sounded pretty unsure (and holy damn that fucking accent was going to be the end of me. I just hope to god that I don’t say some crazy shit about it once drunk) but I ended up nodding my head anyway.

“Sure.”

He smiled at that and took another sniff of the shot.

“Here’s to getting wasted with a stranger,” I held up my shot glass to clink with his.

He chuckled and replied, “well, not exactly a stranger.” And then we were sculling it down. And just as he withdrew his shot glass and swallowed (oh lord the way his slight adam’s apple bobbled) he started to cough. The laugh that escaped my lips was by pure accident. I fucking swear! I didn’t mean to laugh at him!

“Not used to shots?” I asked once my laughter died down. He quickly took a sip of his pina colada to calm down his cough.

“No... That was my first.”

“No fucking way, man,” I gawked. Was this guy even fucking real!? How the fuck was this his first shot!?

“It’s true,” he actually fucking blushed. Holy shit he was for real. Holy fucking shit.

“Then what the hell did you get drunk on?” I asked. I did remember him saying something the previous night about only being drunk once or twice... but what the hell did he drink if it weren’t shots?

“Cider... mostly... maybe a couple of vodka drinks too,” he replied nonchalantly.

“God... Then you have to try tequila if you liked lolly water,” I suggested. If he liked vodka drinks, then tequila would work even better. Hell yeah! This would make it so much fucking easier. Three more shots and we’d be in fucking merry land. And with the added motion of the boat, I sure as hell knew it would be trippy as fucking ever.

“Lolly water? Oh! Isn’t that for... hey! That’s not nice,” he laughed when he realised. “I didn’t realise you were sexist.”

“I’m not. You’re the one who thought of it,” I snorted and took a sip of my own drink.

“Touché,” he quickly replied. The word made me wrinkle my nose in disgust. That made him sound like an extreme fucking sheepshagger.

“So....What did you get up to today?” I started. I thought that maybe the blond-stud’s advice would still be helpful at this point.

“Ah, same thing as I said yesterday. Crocodylus Park and Aquascene,” he replied.

“My mates saw Crocodylus Park too.”

“Really? I didn’t see any of them,” his voice seemed to raise a fucking octave. He seemed almost excited, how strange. It was like whenever there was something we had in common, he got extremely excited over it. Ah, oh well. Whatever floats his boat, I guess.

“They were there early. We met at the Wave Lagoon at one, so you probably missed them,” I explained.

“Yeah, that sounds about right. We first went to Aquascene,” he replied and took a sip of his drink. “What did you get up to?” He seemed to eye me curiously and ever so slightly leaned closer to me. I thought the action was a little weird at first, (and fucking out of character, even for him who probably still thinks I’m a fucking stalker or some shit) but shrugged my shoulders anyway. I took a wild guess and thought he was just getting more comfortable in the fucking painful bar stool.

“Blondie and I did nerdy shit. Museum, Charles Darwin National Park and Wave Lagoon,” I replied nonchalantly. I took another sip of my drink and got slightly startled when I slurped. Shit! I was already at the end of the first one? I saw Marco finish off his own quickly in the corner of my eye before he looked over to me.

“Blondie...? You mean Armin?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, looking back. Our eyes met for a second (a fucking gloriously holy second) before he chuckled under his breath and looked towards Eld behind the bar.

“You two seem close, aye” I didn’t exactly get the tone of his voice (and holy fuck he used that fucking typical sheepshagger ‘aye’ again) but I ended up humming anyway.

“High school mates, yeah. Same with the other dipshits I call mates,” I joked. He laughed at that.

Eld realised we had no more drinks and immediately found his way back to ask. This time I ordered another fruit cocktail and four shots of tequila. Of course Marco went for his pina colada again.

“So... where are you from?” Marco asked after we fell into silence. Okay, it wasn’t exactly fucking silence. It was more like listening to the music with a slight turned face. The people were still fucking dancing crazily as always. Apparently their drunken state and the rocking of the ship didn’t make them lose their balance either. I fucking highly applaud them.  

“Hah?” What the fuck was with that question? For a smart fucking guy, that was one stupid as question. I almost wanted to laugh at how stupid it was. Didn’t I sound like a fucking Aussie to him or something?

“I mean, where in Australia,” he corrected, rubbing his cheek. I swear his cheeks were even fucking darker. Even his ears were glowing now.

“Sydney,” I stated.

Before he could reply, Eld came back with drinks on hand. He passed us the lime slices and a salt shaker too and I swear to fucking god, the look Marco gave me was hilarious. He seriously had no fucking idea, did he?

“You’ve never seen people do tequila shots?” I questioned.

“No, I don’t think so,” he tilted his head. He picked up a tequila shot and sniffed it. I swear, the way his nose wrinkled up was so fucking cute. Holy damn. This guy was going to be the end of me.

“Lick the back of your hand and shake the salt onto it,” I instructed. I showed him how to do it first and he seemed to follow easily enough. He looked so fucking nervous though. But why on earth would he be? This shit was good. There was no way he’ll regret it.

“On the count of three, lick the salt off your hand, scull down the shot and then suck on one of the lime slices, okay?”  

We both took hold of a shot glass and I waited for his nod. “Ready.” He even fucking gulped!

“One... two... three!” I counted. Almost instantly we went away with it. I was of course faster than him (I’ve had way too many fucking tequila shots in my life) and took it down easier. Marco on the other hand decided it was the best time to pull the fucking funniest face ever as soon as he sculled the drink. I thought for a fucking second that he’d gag but was blown away when he just shook his shoulders and took in the lime slice eagerly.

“That was awful, oh my gosh,” he complained. I couldn’t help myself, I laughed so fucking hard at his reaction. Of course every fucking dipshit who tried tequila for the first time thought that. But his reaction was perfect. Holy shit.

“The more you drink it, the better they taste. One more, come on,” I encouraged, picking up the salt shaker again.

“This stuff tastes so strong. Are you sure we’re meant to have this many?”

“One more after this and we should be good for the night,” I replied. “Come on, Marco. I swear, it gets better.”

He eyed me suspiciously before taking the other shot glass in hand. This time things went a hell of a lot smoother. And much quicker. He thankfully didn’t nearly gag this time either, but he still wore the most hilarious fucking expression.

“Tequila makes limes taste so good,” he mumbled while sucking on the lime piece.

“Hell yeah. Alright, you’re buying the next round, ya reckon?”

He furrowed his brows at me at first and then slowly nodded. “Sure.” He ended up replying and caught Eld’s attention. Surprisingly enough, our two cocktails were forgotten for the moment and I guessed we would drink them once the next round was done 

“Two... more shots of tequila please,” Marco called. I didn’t exactly hear him that well since the music suddenly got louder. Even the fucking lights got flashier. And then the boat-

 _Oh_. And I guess at that point I realised that the alcohol was finally kicking in. I was finally feeling a bit more than tipsy. The giddiness that it left in my stomach only made me more fucking excited to be with Marco. (And maybe just a little more confident) After having a beer, two glasses of wine and these shots plus the cocktail, I was amazed that I was still holding out well. Of course, the shots would only kick in a while later but something in the back of my head told me I was going to have one fucking hell of a night once they did. It won’t be as rough as when the shit-stain and I do shots, but it’d still be one hell of a good one.

Marco turned around in his bar stool to watch over the people. I took the opportunity to have another good look at him. He still looked mighty fucking fine (such a fucking beaut) and the added sweat and redness that was taking over his body only added to his fucking hotness. Of course those thoughts lead me to all the wrong places as I remembered what I had done the previous night. No. I couldn’t think of shit like that. Especially not drunk. Fuck no! That would mean the fucking end to everything we’ve worked up towards. So, instead I shook my head and attempted another conversation.

“Marco.... What are you doing in Broome?” I asked. He turned his head quickly towards me and I sure as hell did not miss how glazed over his eyes were. Even his face was a touch darker than before. By now his freckles were completely lost. I had to bite my tongue so fucking hard not to say something flirty to him.

“Just a couple of things. Nothing too exciting, aye?” He beamed me that giant fucking smile of his. Oh lord, that was the first time he smiled like that to me all night and it left my fucking stomach twirling like a love-sick teen. Holy fucking shit, Marco.

“Want to join us at Cable beach... I mean, it’ll be pretty lame and all, but the more the merrier, yeah?” I suggested. His eyes seemed to light up at that as he instantly started nodding.

“Yeah! I’ll ask my friends about it! I’m sure they’d love to,” he agreed. Again, he flashed me this really big smile and I couldn’t help but feel so fucking good about it. He was actually smiling at me for asking him. Holy shit! I was finally getting some good fucking points! Hell yeah!

Eld returned with our other set of tequila shots and this time I felt a little worried. By now the alcohol was really settling in. I was already struggling to keep control over my mouth. I swear, if I didn’t have such good self control, I’d be fucking giggling and saying the weirdest shit already. But no, I had to look good as I could in front of Marco. There was no way in hell I’d ruin what we have just yet. I needed to go a step farther with him before I could pull my stud moves on him.

We took the shots and this time; it tasted a hell of a lot better. Even Marco was laughing at the end of it.

“You’re right. It does taste better after a while, aye?” He giggled. He took his pina colada in hand and whirled around to face the dancing crowd again. I quickly followed his actions and started tapping my foot with the beat. With the flashing lights and the motion of the ship, I was starting to really feel it. And as soon as a quiet giggle escaped next to me, I knew he fucking felt it too.

“I feel really light,” he giggled.

“That’s how you’re meant to feel, dipshit” I snorted and suddenly giggled (yes fucking giggled. Oh lord, what was this guy even fucking doing to me!? I was losing my fucking manhood by the second around him) shortly after.

And before I even fucking knew it, we were both laughing and humming with the music. And somehow, yes, fucking somehow, he started quietly singing with whatever fucking outdated Abba song was playing. I threw my head back in laughter, only because holy fucking shit, could he sing good. And even though he had the craziest fucking accent, he still sounded so glorious. Drunk Marco was so fucking loose and alive. I was just so glad to see his hesitant-self gone.

And of course, being drunk as I was, I had to do the stupid move of bumping our elbows together that were resting on the bar counter. I wasn’t too sure if Marco was too drunk to notice or if he just didn’t care because he never moved his arm away. And he definitely didn’t shuffle away when I leaned in closer to him. In fact, I got fucking rewarded. He leaned even closer into me until our shoulders touched. At this point I couldn’t get why he was being so close to me and I guess I just decided he was a touchy drunk or some shit. I still barely even knew anything about him but like that even mattered.

(I’m just going to make a fucking announcement. The next part of the night were full of stutters and mumbles and fucked up slurs. But for the sake that I’m re-telling this to you dipshit readers, I will be ignoring most of the slurs. Seriously, if you knew how fucking terrible we were at talking, then you’d be fucking thankful.)

“So... Tell me more about yourself, Marco,” I started once my laughter died down.

“What? Oh... You know, I’m going to become a doctor and I live with two chocolate drillers, as you said,” he giggled. Of course he only replied with shit I already fucking knew.

“How’s the life with two chocolate drillers?” The laugh that escaped his fucking mouth was unreal and I sure as fucking hell caught wind of it. So he still thought the nickname was hilarious as fuck.

“It’s terrible,” he finally replied. “The walls are really thin in our apartment, so I hear everything.”

“God, that’s fucking shit.”

Our eyes met for a split second before he faced the crowd again. The simple fucking look made me bite my bottom lip and I nearly, almost fucking nearly, reached out to grab his head. He was just so fucking hot and I was just so fucking close to sucking his face off.

“This one time I caught them,” he admitted. I didn’t reply but instead leaned in and bumped our heads together. That earned me a laugh before he carried on. “It was my fault anyway. I was meant to stay another two hours in library but I so happened to go home early.”

“Let me guess, you caught them on the couch?”

“Ha! I wish,” he finally turned to face me again. And this time our eyes locked for a long fucking time. “More like on the kitchen counter top.”

“That’s even fucking worse,” I scoffed, still holding his gaze. Eventually he looked away again and went strangely quiet for a second. And then I was fucking shitting myself. Was it something I had said or what? As quick as he went quiet, he almost instantly began laughing again.

The short gaze we had did nothing to my fucking soul but taunt it. And being in the fucking drunken haze as I was, I sure as fucking hell cracked a fat. And a really fucking bad one at that. (I even had to fucking rearrange myself in my tight as fucking jeans, even though it was dark in the area) And of course I was fucking stupid enough to openly stare at the hot freckled boy next to me. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the opening of his shirt, even when this time I could clearly see a couple of freckles sprinkled over his exposed chest. And even later, I slowly began moving my gaze up towards his face.... Past his chin, square jaws and straight onto the way he was slowly licking his lips. They were so fucking pink and wet and-

At least I still had some fucking control and decency to look away as soon as he turned his head towards me. I swore the looked he gave me was questioning, but I ignored it the best I could. I was just so fucking glad his drunken state didn’t make him full of questions but rather laughter. Thank fucking god for my luck tonight. And somehow, my stupid mouth decided to move on its own.

“That chick is hot,” I nodded towards the dance floor. I wasn’t looking at anyone in particular. With the flashing lights and the dizziness from the ship, I couldn’t even fucking keep my eyes on one spot for a second. Marco quickly turned his head to the crowd too and furrowed his brows.

“Which one?”

“The one in the blue skirt,” I stated the first

He laughed at that and bumped our shoulders. “I thought you were gay.”

“I’m bi, you dipshit,” I retorted. Almost instantly his face shot towards me again. In my drunken state I couldn’t exactly read what kind of look he was giving me. And I remember that I was meant to ask him why he was looking at me like that, but was silenced when a new song started playing. His eyes grew fucking huge in that instant. Honest to fucking god, they were huge. Like a fucking owl or something.

“This song!” He yelled, spinning his body towards the crowd and being a fucking dork as he was, he stumbled off his chair and the next thing I knew he was on the fucking ground like an idiot.

“Marco!” I howled out in laughter, sliding down my own bar stool and onto my knees. He laughed excitedly as he moved onto his side.

“I fell off the chair!” He cackled, patting the ground in attempt to make probably... you know what, I didn’t even fucking know cause all I did was laugh as I fell face forward onto his shoulder.

“You fucking sheepshagger,” I teased.

“But the song is so good! Let’s go join the crowd!” He immediately rose, knocking me on the fucking forehead with his shoulder. Of course I was so fucking dizzy that I banged my head against the bar stool when I was pushed upwards and earned another fucking round of laughter from the freckled boy.

“Come on!” He encouraged, getting up and pulling me up by my hand. I was going to fucking protest, because let’s be real. Let’s be fucking honest. I cannot dance for the life of me. Not even fucking drunk. But like I even cared at that moment. All I did care about was how he still held my fucking hand. It was so smooth and so sweaty and- Of for the love of god, I cracked another fucking fat.

If he wasn’t holding my hand so fucking tightly, I would have lost him once we joined the crowd. He seemed so eager to get into the centre and once we did, he immediately let my hand free and shot his hands in the air.

“I love this song, aye!?” He announced.

And being a fucking confused Jean Kirstein as I was, all I could do was watch him shove his fists in the air and bang his head to the beat. I couldn’t help but laugh so hard (my fucking sides were so sore, holy shit) at the scene ‘cause what the fuck was he even doing?

“You call that dancing!?” I snorted over the music. I didn’t even fucking care at this point that I’d have a sore throat the following day.

I began shamelessly (I think. You know what, I had no fucking shame at all at that point) thrusting my hips in rhythm to the music. It earned me a throaty laugh before he copied my moves. And what could I have even fucking said? He looked like the hottest fucking dork in all of history. Holy fucking shit. Scratch that, we were both being fucking dorks. And I didn’t care how badly this ruined my ego.

Of course, I was being the fucking pervy gay guy as I usually was when I was drunk and did not once move my eyes off his crotch. Fuck, I didn’t even care at that point that he’d notice. And he sure as hell didn’t seem like he did. All he did was move into some strange as fucking dance move that I would have guessed was some strange sheepshagger shit. But holy shit was he hot. So fucking hot that I couldn’t move my eyes off his ass when he turned around to dance with some chick. And before I even knew it, I was suddenly thrusting myself up against his ass and then...

_Holy fuck._

Holy fucking shit. (Did I mention that I had a boner through all of this? Cause let’s be fucking honest. Who does not get a boner after watching that ass of his?) He did what he did the previous night. He fucking jumped. So high that he knocked the girl over and by some fucking miracle someone caught her. He almost instantly turned around to look at me and of course his eyes were fucking huge. And his mouth was even bigger. I wasn’t sure whether he was going to fucking yell at me or some shit, but his reaction was what caught me off guard the most.

Instead of doing everything I thought he was going to do, he eventually closed his mouth and he fucking smirked. He mother fucking smirked at me. Can I fucking repeat this shit. _He smirked_! And I had no idea what to even fucking do because there he was again, blowing me off my stride, even when fucking drunk.

“You’re such a chocolate driller!” He teased. The smirk immediately left his face and soon he was laughing hard again. I laughed for some fucking reason too (I was just so confused by his reaction) and took a step to close the space between us.

“Whatcha’ gonna’ do about it?” I blurted. And I was fucking pissing myself because I knew I shouldn’t have fucking asked and yet there I was, smiling like a fucking ridiculous fool, moving with the motion of the boat and feeling so giddy that I didn’t know what was left or fucking right.

And instead of saying anything at all, he just grabbed my wrist and pulled me away. I didn’t even ask where he was going. (I swear I was fucking hoping he was going to take me to his room or some shit. I mean, I knew this guy was straight and all, but holy fucking shit, couldn’t he bend the rules just once!?) He eventually let go of me and carried on laughing once we were by the sets of stairs.

“Last one to the secluded deck is a rotten egg!” He yelled. And before I could even take fucking note of what he said, he was already running up the stairs.

I ran after him, laughing my lungs out as we raced up the flights of stairs to Deck 10. It was so fucking trippy though. You would not believe how fucking trippy. The boat was rocking so fucking much and the steps felt so short and holy shit, how the fuck did we not fall over!?

The hallways were as bad as always. And running through them made it even fucking more hilarious. So much that I tripped over and somehow landed face first onto the carpeted hallway with a round of cusses, I think?

“You doofus! I’m going to win!” He called, still running towards the end of the hallway. By some fucking miracle I pulled myself up with the help of the wall (because I shit you not, the fucking hallway was rocking so bad that I felt like I was having the craziest fucking dream) and ran after him.

And before I knew it, I was through the door and breathing so fucking heavily into the humid air.

“I win!” Marco announced. I looked up from my slouched position to find him already sitting on a deck chair. He eventually fell back, still laughing. I somehow stumbled towards the empty deck chair next to him and landed face first into the cushions.

“That was so fucking trippy,” I mumbled. He laughed in return.

“Yeah!”

“How fucking grand,” I retorted, turning around and looking out the sky. And for some reason my drunken mind decided the sky was so fucking entertaining, that I ended up staring at it for I don’t even know how long. All I could feel was the world spinning and the boat moving. I didn’t even know where I was and all I could see was a dark sky filled with lights with the heavy breathing next to me. Well, that was until Marco spoke.

“I still feel so light... Like I can’t stop laughing or something.”

If I had to be honest, we didn’t drink near as much as I thought we would have. Sure, I’d have a fucking hangover the following day, but it wasn’t bad as that first night... I have yet to chunder my fucking guts out again on this ship since that night.

We didn’t end up talking much after that, from what I remember anyway. I think we just laughed and ended up falling asleep for a while. Well, that was until a bartender nudged me awake.

“It’s midnight, sir. I recommend you return to your cabin,” he suggested. I was so fucking confused and I still felt the giddiness inside of me, but then I remembered Marco. I sat up in that instant, only to find him lightly sleeping in his own deck chair. He had one arm over his eyes and the other freckled arm clutching his already tight and slightly wet-looking shirt.

“Yo, M-Marco,” I slurred as I shook him. He looked so fucking cute that I almost wanted to kiss him. Wait, scratch fucking that. I had wanted to kiss him all fucking night. And I was damn proud of myself for not doing anything too crazy. I was just so glad my self-control lasted long enough.

“Hm?” He hummed, finally removing his arm and opening his eyes.

“Where’s your cabin?” I yawned, running my hand through the longer parts of my hair.

“Deck 10, how come?” He mumbled. At first I was surprised that we, by some miracle, were staying on the same deck. But then I was glad. So fucking glad. This made stuff a hell of a lot easier.

“Come on, tell me which one, it’s time we head back,” I pulled him up. Thankfully he made it easy. And being a good mate as I was, I helped him towards his cabin, which turned out to be not that far away from our own.

It strangely reminded me of the day Blondie and I followed Bertl and Annie. So they were heading towards their cabin after all. And at that thought, Marco came to a sudden halt which only made him giggle when I planted head first into him.

“I think this is it,” he muttered, slotting in his card and opening the door.

“You’ll be okay, man?” I asked, looking into the cabin. At first I found it odd that there was a double bed in the room. And I was almost so fucking curious enough to ask him if he was sharing with Annie or staying on his own, but instead got interrupted before I could even open my mouth.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he chuckled as he leaned against the door frame. We awkwardly gazed into each other’s eyes for a long while (god, the way he nibbled on that lip of his was already enough to make me crack a fat) and I fucking swear I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. What was I meant to do? How was I even fucking meant to say goodnight to him after all of this?

“Ya’ reckon? Cool then,” I nodded slowly. He beamed me his iconic smile and I eventually turned around. Even though I was still giddy as hell, I felt so awkward about leaving things like that. But, I still tried my fucking hardest to walk away before doing something stupid. I had to take things slow.

“Drink lots of water, alright!?” I ended up calling without turning around.

“Alright!” He yelled back and before I knew it, the sound of a door shutting echoed off.

What was I even fucking hoping for? Some kind of sappy fucking kiss? Some kind of romantic shit? Marco was _straight_. Sure, we just got fucking drunk together and shit, but that wouldn’t change his sexuality. (Even I knew that fucking much)

Surprisingly enough the shit-stain and Connie were in bed already and snoring away. But the biggest shocker was realising that Armin wasn’t in his bed. I could only fucking hope that he had a better ending of the night than me.

And even after I got out of my clothes and set the alarm clock for a decent hour, I still felt slightly unsatisfied. There was no point to even look over the night. We were drunk.... and fuck! I was still tipsy as hell, so it was fucking pointless.

I ended up just sighing and covering myself in the fresh covers. All in all, it was a great evening. Sure, we didn’t get absolutely wasted, but it was still one hell of a fun night.

And the best part of it all was I think Marco finally opened up that night. Or at least, looking back on it now, I somewhat know it was. Something must have clicked inside of him because from there on, things became really interesting.

 

-

 

The following day, Friday (January 10th) was spent lazily. And when I mean lazily, I mean lazy as fucking can be. Armin had at some point returned to the cabin during the night and was surprisingly in his bed when I woke up. And thank fucking god the rocking was over with. What was left was the gentle sway of the ship that we originally had.

And as per usual we all headed for breakfast which went as fast as lightning. I thankfully only had a headache and figured I slept most of whatever hangover I would have originally had when Marco and I were outside the previous night.

Mikasa and Sasha had excused themselves later and said something about going to some dance class they had signed up for. Which left us blokes to spend another day on Deck 14. Hell fucking yeah. The day couldn’t have gotten any better than sipping fruit cocktails and the odd beer while chilling in the sun.

Armin was strangely quiet all morning and I couldn’t figure out if it was because something bad happened or if he was just tired as fuck. I mean, I was never used to Armin being quiet at all. Not like this anyway.  The only thing that really popped up in my mind was that he was probably hungover or some shit. (But Armin wouldn’t go that far... would he?) And only after an hour of lying on the deck chairs, enjoying the clear skies and smell of sunblock did I break whatever silence lingered between us.

“How was your night?”

Armin perked his head up towards me and relieved a sigh. “I thought you were never going to ask.”

“Hah?”

“I was waiting for you to ask, you fruit loop,” he chuckled. He was waiting for me to be fucking nosy and ask? What the fuck was he even thinking? I rolled my eyes anyway, even though he couldn’t see them behind my fucking sunnies.

“It was great, by the way. Erwin’s suite is really nice,” he continued on.

“He’s staying in his own suite too?” The annoyingly pitched voice of the shit-stain sounded next to Armin. I quickly sat up at that. What the fuck did he just say? Did the shit-stain just make mention of going to someone’s cabin who had a suite!? What!? His ship-fling was fucking rich too!?

“Too?” Armin questioned. I swear, the shit-stain froze so fucking quickly and before either of us knew it, he stood and excused himself. 

The blondie and I laughed so fucking hard at the shit-stains antics that we even woke Connie up from beside me. He groaned something about stuffing our mouths with bread before turning around to sleep again.

“So... How was Marco?” Armin asked. “You said something about getting drunk with him?”

“Pretty ace,” I shrugged my shoulders before resting back onto the chair.

“Nothing happened in the end...?” Armin quietly questioned. And as much as I wished I could have told him that something grand and exciting as whatever he and the blond-stud had probably gotten up to the previous night, I just couldn’t. ‘Cause the truth was, shit all even happened. And I highly doubted Armin would make mention of anything if I told him about our fucking awkward goodbyes. So in the end, shit all happened and all that progressed was that he opened up to me. At least that was something.

“He’s straight, Armin. I can’t pull my usual game on him.”

“You don’t know that for certain,” Armin pondered.

I just waved my hand in the end, signalling that the conversation was over. It looked like he wanted to retort but he ended up smiling. He quietly gave me a pat on the arm and then went back to laying on his own deck chair. The exchange may have seemed fucking weird to any dipshit who saw it. But I knew what it meant. It was Armin’s silent way of saying ‘good job anyway.’ And Fuck, I felt so happy about it.

I don’t know how long we carried on laying there. I was floating in that weird fucking world of half sleep and half awareness. The music in the background was so fucking loud that there was no way I could actually sleep and knowing that we’d have to get in bed fucking early as tonight made it all the better to try and stay up.

The sun was hot and I could feel it burning my chest (did I mention I was finally fucking shirtless? There was no blond-stud around, (Armin said something about him doing some classes today) so I decided to go shirtless and flash my bare flesh. Hey! Might as fucking well. I needed another tan) until suddenly I felt a shadow being casted on me.

“I hate you,” I heard a muffled voice above me. (And I swear, by now I could already fucking hear his sheepshagger accent without even having to guess who it was) I opened my eyes and there he was, freckled boy standing right at the head of my deck chair, looking over me with a fucking scowl that could make a baby even fucking cry.

“Hey man,” I chuckled, sitting up and staring at him.

To be honest, he looked so fucking bad.  The greenness on his face told me he was suffering from pretty fucking bad motion sickness or maybe a really bad headache. I just figured it meant he had one hell of a hangover.

Instead of replying he just crossed his arms weakly and groaned. The look on his face told me to start apologising or it would be the fucking end of me. But instead I ended up laughing. Yes. I fucking laughed. He looked so childish and I swear it made him so cute.

“It was your decision. You agreed to it,” I protested. I was waiting to get some fucking sassy comeback, but instead a low groan was given to me and before I knew it he was sitting at the end of my deck chair, facing Armin. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Armin sitting up and watching us.

“Have you drunk some painkillers?” I asked. I wanted to rub his back so fucking bad. He looked like he needed it, but I had no idea if it would be considered okay or not. Instead I just watched him hang his head close to his bent knees.

“Yeah,” he groaned.

“At least drink some water then,” I urged, picking up the glass I knew my melted ice was in. He didn’t even fucking care that there was a fruit cocktail originally in the glass. He just gulped whatever melted ice there was.

“Where are your mates?” I asked once he handed me the glass.

“I don’t know. I told them to let me sleep longer,” he replied. His voice sounded hoarse and it only reminded me of my own from this morning. I guess the previous night we did a lot more yelling than I thought.  

“Are you okay, Marco?” Armin questioned from his chair.

“Oh, yeah, just a headache,” Marco explained, giving him one of his iconic beaming smiles. And to be fucking honest, I was almost jealous. He hadn’t once fucking smiled at me since finding us.

“Why did you get me to agree? This headache is killing me,” he sobbed. He actually fucking sobbed. Holy shit! Poor Marco. I seriously did not know he would be such a fucking baby over this.

I didn’t say anything in the end and instead waved down the waiter that walked past. I asked for a couple glasses of water and ice, which he replied he’d get immediately.

“Have my seat, Marco,” Armin offered. I realised the deck chair the shit-stain had been on was still empty. I almost wanted to fucking celebrate when Armin used that brain of his and thought of such a good fucking plan. Cause I sure as hell didn’t think of it. Actually, I was just happy he was sitting with me on my one.

“Thank you, Armin,” he smiled and I swear the smile Armin gave him back was bigger than the ones he gives me. Not that I could blame him. It was so fucking hard not to smile back at Marco.

“You’re quite playful when drunk, aren’t ya?” I teased after we fell into silence.  He just groaned and hid his face with his hands. (And I sure as fucking hell could not take my eyes off his exposed arms. He was wearing another polo shirt and holy fucking damn. His arms and all the way to his hands were covered in faint freckles) I saw Armin sit up at my statement and I knew he was fucking curious as hell. Heck, I was curious about his night too. It was not fair that he’d get these details of mine.

“Rotten egg? Doofus? What are you, ten?”

“Shut up,” he grumbled. I could have sworn his ears were going deep red.

“They aren’t that bad,” Armin defended Marco. Of course Armin knew I was only joking. (And I’m pretty sure Marco knew that as well.)

“You’re one to talk, Armin,” I smirked. He just scoffed at my reply and threw me a warning look. My, how unlike Armin. Obviously I pushed a wrong button there.

The conversation seemed to have died down again and soon after our water came. Marco drank that shit up like a thirsty man in a desert and I couldn’t help but feel proud that I knew he’d want water. And that’s how the afternoon went by. We idly chatted about Sydney and other places in Aus. He didn’t mention any extra information about his life but instead asked in-depth questions about mine. All of which Armin enjoyed too fucking much. He ended up doing most of the talking. God fucking damn it! At least the blondie didn’t share any embarrassing stories.

Eventually Bertl came to find Marco. And I sure as hell did not miss that fucking shuddering, sweaty look he gave me. Seriously!? When was this guy ever going to loosen up around me? Isn’t it fucking obvious that I was pinning for Marco and not him!?

“Marco!” I called out just as he took a step away from the deck chair after he said his goodbyes. “Meet us at Cable beach tomorrow?”

“Of course! I’ll see you around twelve, aye?” He answered, giving a small wave before walking off.  Armin’s eyebrow rose behind his sunnies and gave me an expectant look.

“I guess I’ll try to get there earlier then,” he finally spoke.

“Damn right.”

There wasn’t much else that happened that evening. Dinner went without a hitch as usual. Hanji stole most of the spotlight as she yabbered our ears off about some Broome shit and history. All of which I found fucking lame. I gazed a couple of times over at Marco (who surprisingly changed their dinner time too) and every time I did, I swear I saw him blush. Or something like that. Honest to god, he was so fucking cute and hot and if I had the chance, I would have stared at him all fucking night.

Of course, the tension I felt around the table was the strangest fucking thing. The shit-stain was especially quiet and I swear he shuddered every time Levi spoke. Obviously something had happened when I left them the previous night, but I seriously did not care enough to ask. But the way he fucking shuddered every time was hilarious and so entertaining. And then there was something odd going on between Erwin and the blondie too. Or at least, something went down as they played with each other’s hands under the table. (I’m pretty fucking sure I wasn’t meant to notice that. But I sure as hell fucking did and a couple times I raised my eyebrows at Armin to silently question what they were doing. All I got was a squirm from the blondie and a red face to boot.)

This time I was dragged into the theatre hall where a surprisingly fucking good musical played. The shitty music was somehow fucking catchy and I knew it’d be stuck in my head until I fell asleep.

The night ended with a glass of whiskey on the rocks with the oldies (cause let’s be fucking real here. They were all in their thirties, probably, and as much as I’m happy for the blondie, I kinda’ have to wonder if he really has thought about the age difference thoroughly) before saying our goodnights and heading to our separate cabins.

“There is no way in hell I can sleep this early,” I complained (I’m fucking serious. It was only eleven. I haven’t gone to bed this fucking early in years) once we were all in bed. Except for Armin, he was on his laptop. Probably making sure he had copies of the Darwin photos before clearing the memory card of his heavy as fucking camera.

“We have to get up at six tomorrow. Just try at least,” he retorted. He seemed to have finished whatever on his laptop after that and placed everything away.

“Six is too fucking early,” I grumbled.

“I haven’t woken up at six in ages,” Connie added. Armin switched off the last remaining light and got into bed.

“It’s not that bad,” Armin chimed.

“You’re the one to talk Armin. You only got back at like five last night,” Eren’s muffled voice sounded above me.

“Where were you, man? We couldn’t find you at all last night,” Connie questioned. At that I looked quizzically at Armin, even though it was dark and he couldn’t see me.

“N-nowhere in particular,” Armin finally squeaked after a moment of silence.

“Yay, Armin. At least you’re the first one to get laid,” Eren announced. I was going to add my own cocky reply too but was interrupted by Connie.

“What!? I was first, Er-”

“You don’t count, Connie,” I interrupted.

“You guys are a bunch of wankers. At least I get some often.”

We all laughed at his reply until I brought Armin back into the spotlight. “Armin, you didn’t disagree. So, you really did get laid.”

‘No, No! I didn’t, really,” he blurted out. I’m pretty sure all of us heard the honesty in his voice. And even though it was possible he might have actually done it and just used that specific voice on us, I knew somehow that he didn’t go through with it. I knew Armin too fucking well, especially in that kind of manner. He’d never go that far with someone he just met.

“Now it’s a deciding factor between horse-face and I,” Eren laughed.

“Fuck that, Jaeger. You know I’ll get laid before you,” I scoffed.

“How? You don’t even have any-” The poor fucking shit-stain didn’t even have time to finish the statement before I heard a light bang and ‘ow’ above me.

“Go to sleep, you fruit loops,” Armin hissed.

And somehow our cabin filled with silence. The following day was going to be a long fucking day, but knowing that I’d be spending part of it with Marco and his mates made me so fucking eager to just sleep and get on with it. And strangely enough, sleep did come quickly that night. I found myself falling asleep to the soft sway of the ship and with Marco’s face behind my eyelids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay!!!! We’re finally getting somewhere! Excuse the heavy and long chapter! Next chapter is going to be rewarding! And super long too! 
> 
> Thank you to my beta readers, thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for motivating me and just... everything!!! Ahhh! 
> 
> As mentioned, I’d give a little more information about the locations they’re at. 
> 
> Armin and Jean went to the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory. Apparently the art gallery has really beautiful artwork. They also went to Charles Darwin National Park that has bushwalks, mountain biking, cycling and a couple of other things. It’s quite popular for a really good picnic spot and for the WW2 bunkers.  
> Connie and Sasha spent their day shopping at Smith Street and Casuarina Shopping Centre. They probably went sightseeing too, but I didn’t think too much of it.  
> Eren and Mikasa (and Marco & friends) went to Crocodylus Park which is basically like a wildlife park/ zoo. It’s mostly famous for the crocodiles. I’m pretty sure Eren held the snake too. If he didn’t, I would be disappointed in him.  
> Marco’s group went to Aquascene too, which is a place where you can feed fish during high tide! I read up on tours for the set date (9 January) and it turned out there was an option to feed them between 11am-1pm.  
> Wave Lagoon is a wave pool area open for the ‘whole family.’ (Haha, I had to do that!) There is one pool that forms waves between ten minute breaks. There is also a paddle pool for those who don’t want to swim with the waves. Attached is the Lagoon. Again, as explained, this lagoon water is separated by the walkway/rock jetty and people are able to swim in it without having to worry about dangerous creatures (well, you’ll still swim with fish.)  
> Erwin’s team went to Litchfield National Park. Another really famous park with beautiful waterfalls and other sights. They do have day trips on fourwheel drive cars, but it’s more popular to take longer camping tours instead.
> 
> I wasn't a hundred-percent sure if you could walk on the 'sea wall' that separates the sea and lagoon, but it turns out you can! And if you have time, google search some images of Darwin. It looks really pretty! Apparently it’s really cultural too with markets and everything!
> 
> The song I had in my head for the two boys while they danced was: Dancing Queen – Abba. I have no regrets. 
> 
> Tidbits:  
> Sprog – uh... two meanings: Ejaculation/seman and children/offpring.  
> Crock - crocodile  
> Tube – circular floating device for pools  
> Boogie board – just google it.  
> Yabber – talk a lot  
> Crack a fat - boner


	8. Broome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the amazing amount of hits, bookmarks and kudos!!! Ahhh! It makes me so happy!
> 
> In this chapter they’ll be porting at Broome! Can’t believe it! They’re already 11 days into their cruise!
> 
> I’ve never been to Broome, but I’ve heard some amazing things! Broome has (as stated in the previous chapter) some amazing history behind it. It’s pretty small and all, but if you go at the right time of the year there are amazing sights to see! Apparently the camel rides are one of the best. Their most popular camel rides are at sunset, but they do offer morning rides too, which is what the gang will be doing. 
> 
> It’s better to go to Broome during the dry season (since it’s clear and sunny) but sadly they’re going during the wet season, which means they won’t be able to swim because of jellyfish and no lifeguards. I did check the tides and the weather forecast for the day and it turned out to be a perfectly sunny day! (Too bad it had like 67% humidity! Ahhh! Thank goodness there were no thunderstorms or cyclones between 5-14 Jan!)
> 
> As I’ve mentioned before, I’m using the time schedule of an existing cruise liner, so I’ve been working around it. It’s been quite fun and I’ve learnt so much about Australia already! (Well, of the places I haven’t been to!) So hopefully I can pass on some of the great things! 
> 
> Aside from the travel aspect so far, I hope everyone will enjoy all the great interaction Jean and Marco is going to have in the chapters to come! 
> 
> So yes! Without further ado, sit back, relax and enjoy the lazy day in Broome!

_Day 11  
In which Jean rides a camel in Broome._

* * *

 

The morning of Saturday (January 11th) was a fucking pain in the ass. And when I mean pain in the ass, I mean fucking early. Who the hell ever planned to wake up at six anyway? Oh, that’s right. It was blondie. And yet, as we all crawled out of bed, blondie had the nerve to be the last one to get ready.

The ship had ported Broome early in the morning (apparently four and thanks Armin for that piece of information) but we didn’t need to get off until seven. An hour gave us more than enough fucking time to gather everything. The hardest part was to make sure there were enough water bottles for the day. Armin did mention that there were a couple of restaurants and a cafe by Cable Beach, but for the most part, it was hard to find any water.

Breakfast went by without a hitch. Everyone was excited about the camel ride (and I’ll be completely fucking honest; I was too. Fuck, I’ve never seen a camel up close (and I never thought I would) so I was itching like fucking crazy to get going and head off to wherever we needed to be) and a day being spent at the beach. Of course match made in heaven was disappointed about Armin not hanging out with us for most of the day, but as soon as I mentioned Marco and his mates they seemed to become even more fucking energetic. God, how the fuck were they even this lively at such an ungodly hour!?  

We got off the ship by seven. (After we packed some food into containers from the buffet because why the fuck not? Free lunch! Hell fucking yeah!) For once the waiting area to get off wasn’t as fucking crowded as usual. Actually, the buffet area was quiet as hell too. Armin had said something about how most of the people probably already got off the ship. (And mentioned something about how Erwin’s group had planned to leave around five to see the sunrise at some location) Now that was a fucking surprise. Oh well. At least we could take our sweet as time.

Once we got off the ship I was welcomed with a gloriously blue sky. I felt like fucking celebrating. At least it wasn’t cloudy and fucking humid like Darwin. (Okay, minus the humid part. It was still fucking humid) The only disappointing part was there was no fucking good reception. And knowing how small Broome was, I knew I’d get no wifi anywhere near the beach.

We walked down a long jetty from the wharf until finally we reached a giant car park with an awaiting shuttle bus. There were a couple of other groups around us, all of whom (I’d guess) were going to ride the shuttle with us into the town.

The bus ride was decent enough. Of course, it wasn’t going to take us to the place we needed to be (like I ever had it that fucking easy) but rather to the information centre. Why the fuck there wasn’t a bus from the ship to the beach was beyond me, but at least we got to see what Broome had to offer.

The sand was that typical red which only made me crinkle my nose in hopes I don’t have to walk anywhere near it. (And thankfully, I never did.) Red sand was the fucking worst and it stuck to everything. (I realised that choosing a white tank top was probably not the best idea I had for the day) And surprisingly enough, it wasn’t nearly as green as fucking Darwin. Obviously they’ve not had their rounds of floods and thunderstorms yet.

The town itself was small and I could have fucking sworn we drove past a fast food place that had a giant fucking wifi sign on the window. I made sure to tell everyone we better stop by there before busing back to the ship. Thank god they all agreed.

Of course the blondie had his tourist mode flicked on, which meant he stole the window seat and took photos of nearly every fucking thing we passed. (Why the fuck he needed a picture of a street sign was beyond me) Even when we were in the town and waiting for another bus to take us to Cable Beach that fucking camera did not stop beeping. I was just glad I wasn’t the one holding it.

At least Armin would have a good day with Erwin. Even though I was maybe just a little (only the fucking tiniest bit) disappointed Armin won’t be around for most of the day... But, I was glad for him. I was actually fucking happy. At least he could do some touristy shit with people that wanted to see stuff. (And were as eccentric about it as him too)

We got to the beach at around seven-thirty. And as soon as I stepped out of the bus, I was gloriously awarded with a strong smell of sea salt. Of fuck, today was going to be the best. Fuck yes! Not only would I spend it on a beach with fucking white sand and blue waters, but also with a freckled boy I’ve been aching to know more about.

We walked along the walkway by the grass (with these palm trees and everything. Seriously, this beach was so fucking glorious) and restaurants until we reached the beach access ramp. Armin told us we needed to walk further north of the rocks until we found ‘camels with green blankets’ or some shit. Of course, it wasn’t that fucking hard to find. Camels aren’t that hard to not fucking spot.

“Holy fuck, they’re ugly buggers, aren’t they?” I stated as we were a couple of metres away from the awaiting camels, tourists and... Whatever you call the people who handle camels. (Is there even a fucking name for them?)

“Ya’ reckon? They look soft to me,” Connie replied, his arms behind his head.

“Nah, they look fucking bony,” I disagreed.

“No, I believe they are soft,” Armin chirped in. His camera was still going at a million fucking pictures a minute, but I didn’t have it in me to tease him about it. In times like these, it was best to leave the blondie to what he loves to do best. (I swear though, Mikasa was at it as much as he was.)

“Try not to get spat on, horse-face,” Eren taunted from behind me.

“No, that’s llamas,” Sasha protested.

“Actually, camels spit too,” Armin corrected as we finally reached the camels.

The first thing I noticed was the fucking smell. Holy fucking shit. Camels smelt so fucking bad that I was amazed I didn’t fucking gag. At least they wore these black things so their shit wouldn’t go on the sand. The second thing was, holy shit they are actually fucking huge. What. The. Fuck. And the third was people were feeding them carrots. Why fucking carrots? Did they seriously eat carrots? Whoa. Screw that. There was no way in hell I’d come close to feeding them. Fuck that!

The organisers were lively as fucking ever and introduced us to the camels we’d be riding. Of course, they spoke to us about what to do and how we were going to climb on at around eight. One of the women handed all of us a couple of carrots once she made sure we were ‘confident’ around the camels.

The camel Armin and I were going to share went by the name of Buchwald. (Which, I swear to fucking god sounded like Bullfart. Who the fuck even gives a camel that name?) He had this droopy as fucking lip and I was scared as fucking hell every time it hung even lower. (Its teeth were fucking nasty) I was just waiting for drool to come out at some point. His ears were small but shockingly soft. (Like the rest of it) Connie and Armin were right. Camels were soft. Holy shit.

Armin had no problems with feeding the camel. I... on the other hand wasn’t too keen on this shit. The thing freaked the living shits out of me. That droopy lip and those eyes fucking screamed some creepy shit at my brain. Armin tried to urge me on and I finally caved after I decided I didn’t want to ruin my ego in front of the shit-stain or anyone else for that matter.

But that fucking shit-stain. That mother fucking shit-stain had to ruin it. God. Fucking. Damn. It.

As I held out the carrot on one end so the camel could grab it by the lips, the fucking shit-stain had the fucking nerve to grab onto my shoulders and shout ‘boo.’

And holy shit did I fucking freak out. I yelled so loud that the people next to me fucking stared (and laughed. Mother fucking laughed!) as I fucking leapt towards Armin. Of course the fucking camel got a fright too which resulted in the _camel people_ having to double check if it was okay. They didn’t even fucking have the cheek to ask me if I was alive and okay! Damn it!

“Fuck you, Jaeger!” I growled, still standing behind Armin. Of course the shit-stain did nothing but laugh at my fucking expensive. Even the match made in heaven were howling like dipshits.

“It’s just a camel! It’s not going to kill you,” Eren taunted.

“Eren,” Armin warned. As soon as he said the words Mikasa was grabbing hold of the shit-stain and leading him away.

“Are you okay?” Armin mumbled.

“Yeah. That fucking shit-stain is asking for another prank,” I grumbled, running a hand through my hair.

“Not you. I was talking to Buchwald,” Armin teased. He was patting the camel’s face again. What the fuck? You know what? Whatever. He could tease the hell out of me if he really wanted to. “Come on, admit it. They’re kind of cute.”

“Hell no,” I snorted. “Give me your camera.”

Armin handed me his camera and I told him to pose. The least I could do was take a picture of him with the camel. (At least that meant I didn’t have to feed it) Why the fuck did he think this camel was ‘cute’? If you ask me, Armin was the cute one, not the animal. Strangely enough, I got another whiff of nostalgia as Armin smiled at the camera. It reminded me of the time when we went Royal Easter Show and how fucking excited he was to pet the horses. Those things smelt just as fucking bad as camels. God. I just hoped to god that they’re not as fucking painful.

Not long after we were instructed to get on the camels and holy shit it was intense. Okay, maybe it was just me who thought it was intense. It was bumpy as hell and as soon as the camel was standing up I knew I was going to have a sore ass from this. One hell of a fucking sore ass. Oh shit. At least it cancelled out the movement of the ship. I was sure as hell still feeling it all the way until I got on the fucking camel.( I figured I didn’t need to mention it as it was inevitable that I’d be feeling it until a month after this whole fucking holiday.)

The camel handlers lined up all the camels and after we were in a straight line, they began moving north of the beach. Armin had asked for the front seat as he wanted to take a million photos. I, on the other hand got the back seat, aka, the bumpiest fucking seat in the world. Armin wasn’t moving as nearly as much as I was. I blamed it for the fact that I was sitting on the camels’ ass more than anything else.

The ride was good though. Like actually fucking good. Some of the camel handlers were walking along side us and thankfully we had the match made in heaven behind us. I knew if we had the shit-stain behind us, he’d tease the living hell out of me for riding a bumpy camel.

The view was nice. The water was blue, the sky was blue. The sound of the waves was refreshing and the sand looked heavenly. But, all I wanted was for the hour to go faster. As much as I liked being on this smelly as camel, I just wanted to get to the beach and wait for Marco. And it was as if Armin still had that fucking power of reading my mind because all the sudden he broke the silence between us.

“So, you planned for Marco and his friends to join you guys later?”

“Yeah. The night we got drunk. He seemed pretty happy that I asked him,” I replied.

“That’s a good sign. It’s a shame I won’t be there,” Armin sounded a little indifferent.

“Armin, what are you saying? You get to spend a day with your blond-stud.”

“Will you stop using that awful nickname,” he groaned.

“Have you spoken to shit-stain and Mikasa about Erwin?” I had to ask. Armin was surprisingly detached from them on the trip. It was so fucking unlike him, actually. Maybe it was because he was being my travel buddy, but in any case, I found it a little odd. And I knew from the silence that followed my question that he obviously hadn’t.

“Well, it’s pretty obvious anyway. If they had a problem, which I doubt they do, they’d have said something,” Armin finally replied.

“Have you seen the look Mikasa gives you at dinner?”

“Y-yes?” Armin squeaked.

“Really? And she’s okay with you hooking up with a thirty years old stud?” I wondered. No, screw that. I was fucking amazed. It took her such a long fucking time to accept the fact that I was dating Armin when we were in high school. Why did the blond-stud get it so fucking easy!? Was the world just fucking against me or some shit?

“Yes... But anyway. What are your plans with Marco?”  Clever. Of course he wants to change the fucking topic. Oh well. Clearly he didn’t want to talk about the blond-stud just yet.

“I don’t know. Just keep at it until I find the right time to make a move on him,” I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t like he could fucking see it anyway. And even if he did turn around, the fucking amount of bouncing I did would have hidden it.

Armin hummed for a while before he replied. “What would that move be?”

“I don’t know. Kiss him?” I offered. I had no fucking clue. I’ve never in my fucking life attempted to make a move on a straight guy. Of course Armin had the fucking nerve to laugh.

“Jean, we’re not in high school anymore. You can’t just do what you did with me,” he countered.

“What?” I smirked, leaning forward and aiming towards his ear. “Like randomly start making out with you while we were at a party?”

“J-Jean!” He sputtered. And I was going to tease him some more, but of course Karma had to be a bitch and give me fucking punishment for making him blush or some shit. The metal rod I had been leaning over decided to fucking smack me in the stomach. (It was all Bullwald’s fault. I bet my fucking life that it was because I had scared the living shits out of him.)

“Ow!” I wheezed. Holy fucking shit did it hurt. So fucking much!

“Nice hip movements there, Jean! You’re a real cowboy, eh?” I heard Sasha tease behind me. I just threw her a fucking finger. (And it seriously was not the only one I did throw at her that day) I guess maybe it did look a little fucking weird when I leaned forward over to Armin, especially from the back. I gave my stomach a pat anyway; hoping to god the light pain will go away.

“Are you okay?” He asked, turning his head towards me.

“Barely surviving. Fucking camel is so bouncy,” I complained. He just nodded and turned his head back to the front. The blondie went silent for a moment and I was curious to see if he was going to go back to our topic and of course, it didn’t fucking surprise me that he did.

“Maybe be subtle about it,” he advised. Subtle? How the fuck could I do that? I already fucking grabbed his ass twice!

“You mean bump against him and shit?” Of course I didn’t mention I was already doing that kind of shit with Marco.

“Yes... or run your hand over his arm or leg,” he suggested. I was going to reply to that but we were fucking interrupted by one of the camel handlers on the ground. It looked like I needed to get Armin alone at some point to get some more advice.

“Would you like a photo, gentlemen?” She asked so fucking brightly. Of course blondie jumped at the fucking chance.

Rest of the ride was still good. And by the time we got back to the starting point, it was already nine. And of course, god fucking forbids me to have an easy way down on this camel ride. It must have been because I frightened the camel or some shit. (And here I was, thinking Karma already punished me for that) Because holy fucking hell did my balls hurt when the camel went down to its knees. I could only guess that Armin ended up in more pain, even when we followed the handler’s instructions.

The fucking first step was the hardest. My ass hurt so bad that I had no idea how the fuck I was ever going to sit down again. Even Armin looked fucking stiff. Fuck, scratch that. Shit-stain was fucking wobbling like a penguin. And if I wasn’t feeling so fucking bad I would’ve teased him for it.  

“That was so much fun!” Sasha skipped towards us. And I fucking swear, we all looked at her in horror as she and Mikasa walked perfectly fucking normal.

“Aren’t your asses sore from that?” I questioned.

“Not really!” She admitted, giving me a peace sign. “Come on! Let’s go to the beach!”

We headed over the rocks again. (Very fucking slowly like penguins. I could have sworn Connie asked something on the lines of ‘does this feel like the aftermath of gay sex’ or some shit to Armin along the way. All to which Armin laughed so fucking hard at.) Armin and I separated from the rest as blondie needed to meet with Erwin first. And sure enough, he was easy to find as their group stood on the walkways overlooking the beach. Surprisingly enough there were a couple of people already lying on the sand but even more shocking enough, the cafe that was within the area was so fucking crowded. Guess everyone was eating breakfast or something.

“Armin!” Hanji waved us over. “Are you ready!?”

Armin waved back as Erwin closed the distance between us. (Can I mention that this guy was fucking hot in shorts? Like what the fuck. He was wearing one of those black Aussie hats too and holy damn those ray-bans and oh fuck. Good luck, Armin. Good fucking luck!) I sure as hell did not miss how he couldn’t take his eyes off Armin (which I sure as hell could not fucking blame him because the shirt Armin decided to wear today was more than just a little fucking tight) until I cleared my throat.

“Oh, right! Thanks for allowing me to come along,” Armin was the first to speak.

“It’s fine. Jean, we’ll be back after one,” the blond-stud finally looked at me. I just grunted and gave him the best smile I could.

“Have fun,” I replied sarcastically, before walking away and down the beach ramp. I didn’t really need to walk Armin to Erwin, but I did it anyway. It’s not like Armin needed it, it was more like maybe I just wanted to see what the blond-stud looked like today or... yeah... no. I just cared for Armin. Let’s put it at that.

As soon as I got to the sand, I had taken off my thongs and fucking cracked the biggest smile I could. I shit you not, the sand was so fucking soft and holy fuck. Today was going to be one glorious day.

Finding the others wasn’t hard. Connie had rented two umbrellas from this random ‘beach hut’ van that was parked further down south of the beach. Mikasa and Sasha were already rocking their pretty hot bikinis which were an invitation to turn on my own beach mode.

Off with the tank top. Sunnies on. Another layer of sunblock applied. Towel under the umbrella. Water bottle at the ready. Sounds of the waves crashing in the distance. The rocking of a fucking ship. Life could not get any fucking better than this. I had three hours to waste and sleeping sounded like the best plan ever.

“We’re going to hit up the nudes since it’s still early,” Connie’s voice sounded in the distance. “Want to come, Jean?”

“Nah. I don’t want to see your dongars,” I scoffed.

“Such a pansy, man. We’ve already seen yours,” Connie had the fucking nerve to tease me. That fucking baldy, he was beginning to get as annoying as the shit-stain.

“Really?” Sasha chirped. Oh hell fucking no. No way! I knew what was coming. I just fucking knew. And by the sounds of that fucking snort the shit-stain made, I knew I had to hide.

“He may be a horse, but he’s not hung like one.” I fucking knew it! And for your piece of fucking information shit-stain, I am fucking bigger than average! You hear me!? I bet you’re the one who is fucking puny.

“Did you guys catch him doing the deed?” Sasha asked curiously. Eren laughed at that. I was fucking fisting the sand at that point. If he made fucking mention of overhearing me, he’d get sand in that shitty face of his!

“More like I pulled down his towel.  I had to get the horse-face back for that prank,” he laughed. God. Fuck. Just go to the fucking nude beach and leave me alone.

“Eren, that’s not nice,” Mikasa scolded. She actually fucking scolded him. The face she wore was hilarious! Thank god for Mikasa! Hell yeah!

“But Mikasa, he deserved it,” Eren whined.

“You know, that doesn’t count,” Sasha interrupted before anything else went down. Thank fucking god for Sasha. At least she had fucking sense and wisdom.

Connie and the shit-stain shrugged and left. Thank fucking god. I ended up laying back down and was going to attempt to fall asleep until Sasha broke the silence.

“Ignore them. At least you’ve got your eyes set on someone! Unlike Eren,” she encouraged. God Sasha, don’t do that. Don’t stroke my ego. “How is he going anyway?”

“Ace. He’s going to join us with his mates at twelve, remember?” I muttered, turning onto my stomach. My ass was still so fucking sore and even though the sand was gloriously soft, I still couldn’t handle it.

“Oh yes! Mikasa! Do you hear that? We get to meet Jean’s next victim!”

“The freckled boy, right?” She questioned.

“Yeeeeah,” I replied into the towel. I’m surprised they even fucking understood me.

“Can’t wait! He looks like such a nice guy!” Sasha chirped.

“Wake me up before twelve,” I mumbled.

“Will do!” Sasha agreed. She and Mikasa started to idly chat about other people they’ve seen on the cruise, but I slowly drowned out their voices and concentrated on the sound of the waves.

Just three hours to go. A good time to take a nap indeed.

 

-

 

My wakeup call from the nap I had on the beach was from none other than Sasha. She had shouted “Jean!” close to my ear, making me shoot straight up from my position on the towel. (Apparently I fell asleep on my fucking stomach) But I was instantly stopped when I realised something fucking heavy was on the back of my legs.

“Get off me, Sasha,” I growled. I turned my head slightly to see she was crouching down my legs with a sunblock container in her hands.

“Not yet, let me rub your back. It looks really red,” she explained, squirting the sunblock into her hands. I grunted a reply because why the fuck not? I probably needed some on my back again and if she was offering, then why the hell not?

I laid back down on my stomach, allowing her to get to work before mumbling, “Where are Connie and the shit-stain?”

“Playing with a ball Connie rented,” she answered, applying the cold cream to my shoulders. I allowed her to get to work, not really caring that she was taking her fucking time. A long (like actual fucking long) time ago, did we all get used to her non-existent sense of personal space. The thing that surprised me the fucking most was that baldy was okay with it. But then again, match made in heaven were together for most of our fucking years in high school and were glued to each other. (And even tighter than the trio was at the beginning) There was no fucking reason for them to doubt each other.

“Is that him?” Mikasa questioned.

I swear to fucking god, my head shot up so fucking fast that my neck almost hurt when I turned it towards her. And true to Mikasa’s question, there the freckled boy was, walking with his mates in our direction. I didn’t even fucking care that Sasha was still on me, I just sat up which earned me a yelp as she fell to her ass.

“Jean!” She whined.

“M-Marco!” I called, standing immediately and taking a couple of steps away from the umbrella as I fixed my sunnies.

I sure as fucking hell did not miss his get up almost instantly. Oh my fucking god. His fucking hat. His fucking hat had me nearly laughing once I spotted it. Did people seriously fucking buy those Aussie corks hats!? (Oh god, to those dipshit readers who don’t know what these things are, be fucking thankful. They’re like cheap western hats with fucking corks hanging from them with string. This shit sells fucking wherever you go and it’s awful) Was he fucking serious!? And the most fucking funniest part was that both Bertl and Reiner wore them too. Holy fucking shit! You could spot them fucking miles away and know that they were tourists. It was almost cringe-worthy. Holy shit!

He waved back and flashed me his iconic smile. Apart from the hat, he looked fucking hot. And I didn’t miss the glares and look of annoyance from his mate’s faces, but I sure as fucking hell did not care. Marco was here and that’s all that mattered. They could fuck off if they didn’t want to be here with him.

“G’day Jean,” Marco greeted once we were together. He seemed so happy that it made me almost leap for joy. Holy shit.

“Ahh! So you’re Marco,” Sasha interjected (before I could even fucking reply) as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Nice to meet you, I’m Sasha! And that’s Mikasa,” she nodded towards Mikasa who was still sitting under the umbrella.

“Hello,” Mikasa greeted from her towel like two metres away. I was amazed she could even fucking hear us.

“Nice to meet you too,” Marco chuckled, eyeing me curiously (did he seriously just quirk his eyebrows?) as Sasha excitedly jumped beside me. Reiner looked curious too while Bertl, I fucking swear, was shitting his pants (he was still fucking staring at me like I was some crazy as stalker that lured his fucking mate) while Annie looked kind of bored. At least she chose to wear a better fucking hat than the others.

“Guys! Come say hello!” Sasha called, taking a couple of steps away and waving frantically. Oh fuck no, Sasha. Don’t you fucking dare! Not the shit-stain, please!

“Funny to see you again, aye, pina colada boy,” I heard Reiner taunt as the shit-stain and Connie jogged over.

“Jean,” I corrected. “And that’s baldy and the shit-stain,” I nodded towards the two that joined us. I of course couldn’t take my fucking eyes off Marco. (Because let’s be fucking real here. He was so hot during the daylight. Fucking finally I got to see him up close and looking fucking normal. Good lord, how the fuck was this guy even single? Thank god for my sunnies. If I wasn’t wearing them I probably would have looked like a fucking weirdo.) And I sure as hell didn’t really care for proper introductions about the other two.

“Fuck you, Jean. I’m Connie,” Connie corrected, flashing them a hand to shake. Ah, leave it to fucking Connie to be the most mature one out of all of us at times like these.

“Eren,” the shit-stain answered brightly. That shit-eating grin was what annoyed me the fucking most. Knowing that he probably was guessing that Marco was a sheepshagger (who the fuck else would even buy these fucking crazy Aussie hats?) was enough to make me nearly bolt. That fucking grin he flashed me only meant the end of my fucking ego. Oh dear lord.

“Reiner and this here is Bertl,” Reiner replied, shaking both of their hands. Bertl looked like he was fucking nervous and I just couldn’t tell why. But he shook their hands anyway and didn’t even come near me. What the fuck was up with that? So rude!

“Ha! You’re sheepshaggers? How awesome!” Connie beamed. Of course I didn’t miss that knowingly fucking smirk the shit-stain pulled in my direction. (I could just imagine the light bulb fucking glowing as he realised his guesses were correct. Oh fuck. I can already hear his taunts as soon as he got the chance to spout them from his shithole.)

“Annie,” the blonde chick finally spoke, ignoring the comment completely. Surprisingly enough, it was the first time I really heard her speak. And what shocked me even more was that she hardly even had a fucking accent. Good lord.

“I’m Marco,” the freckled boy added, beaming his own iconic smile. And it was like I fucking knew it. It was like I could fucking read the shit-stain’s train of thought. I should have seen it fucking coming miles away. I should have ran as soon as Sasha had called them over. Fuck it. Fuck it all. Fuck you, shit-stain!

“So you’re the one horse-face neighs about all the time,” he had to say it with that fucking shit-eating grin. Mother fucker. Go to hell! And poor Marco. He looked so fucking confused.

“Horse-face!? That’s legend!” Reiner’s booming voice filled the seconds of silence that filled between us. He began laughing and ended up giving the shit-stain a high five. “That’s way better than pina colada boy. I like it.”

“Cheers! You saw what happened with horse-face at the cocktail class too?” Eren asked. At that I just rolled my fucking eyes and walked back to my towel. Like fucking hell I was going to listen to them taunt me. I could already tell that they’ll be good fucking mates. Screw them. Screw all of them.

I saw in the corner of my eye that Marco and Annie followed me back under the umbrellas. At least the freckled boy got the fucking memo. Once I sat down on my towel again, Annie took out towels out of her back pack and handed one to Marco, which he thanked her for. (I probably should have asked what the hell was in his then. But ah, what the hell.)

I just watched Marco unravel the towel and lay it down next to me (and thankfully he took off that stupid fucking hat) until he finally decided to sit down. I heard Annie and Mikasa introduce themselves again and began chatting. Not long Sasha joined in their conversation too. And I swear, I had to try so fucking hard not laugh while Annie’s eyes widened when Sasha shoved a bag of chips in front of her.

“You’re not going to take off your shirt?” I asked when I turned my attention back to Marco. I realised Marco was just going to sit there in a polo shirt and matching boardies. We were on a fucking beach! Didn’t a beach mean shirtless haven and getting one good fucking tan? Out of all us, Marco was the one who needed the sunlight most.

“No...?” He quirked his brows when he faced me. He seemed so fucking confused at my question. Why on earth would he be? Did he not ever remove his shirt when he was at a beach?

“Come on, Marco. It’s a beach. Take it off and get rid of that sheepshagger tan,” I teased, flashing him my own shit-eating grin. Hell, he needed to get rid of it. As much as I wanted to be around this guy, that fucking hat and the tan did nothing but make me cringe.

“I do not have that bad of a tan,” he protested. Our eyes met for a split second (he somehow found them behind the dark lens of my sunnies) and I swear he fucking blushed before looking away again. “How do you know anyway?”

“I saw you on the ship one time, remember?” I reminded.

“Right. Of course,” he nodded, not making a single fucking move to pull it off.

“Come on man, if you’re that embarrassed you can have my tank top,” I suggested. Instead of replying he started to fucking stutter and holy shit his face went so fucking red. I was having a glorious view of those freckles in broad daylight when all the sudden he was bright fucking pink all the way to his ears.

“N-no, it’s fine!” He blurted, taking off his shirt almost instantly and shoving it onto his lap.

And then, I realised something I should have thought fucking through before suggesting it. Fuck! I fucking struggled to keep my eyes off his awfully white but super fucking hot body. But hell! Like I had any fucking control over my eyes. (Thank god for these sunnies. Thank fucking god.)

 I scanned Marco like a perve I fucking was. This was the first time I was up close to him without a shirt and holy damn. Thank you to whoever fucking blessed this freckled boy to me. He had light freckles sprinkled over his upper chest and arms. And surprisingly he had a well sculpted chest and dark nipples and oh... Oh dear lord, _Marco_. The small trail of black hair leading down to his boardies from his belly button only made me gulp the drool away. This was the best fucking material I would ever need to jack off too. Fuck yeah! Holy damn, Marco. How the hell was I blessed with your presence? (I guess this makes up for the times when I was fucking unlucky.)

What I didn’t expect out of the whole fucking ordeal was how silent we were for the first couple of minutes. Even though by now we were both blushing, (I was fucking blushing for all the wrong reasons! Shit!) I would’ve thought we’d begin talking like we always do. But apparently watching the four other guys playing some random ball game some distance away was far more interesting.

Of course, I couldn’t help but find my face growing even fucking redder when I realised how close we were sitting. He was sitting so close to me that with a slight lean, our shoulders would touch. I had to fight every fucking urge not to lean against him. Instead I opted to fight my fucking muscles and only stare at him from the corner of my eye.

“Where’s Armin?” Marco was the first to talk again. And lord, I didn’t even know I was holding my fucking breath all that time.

“With his blond-stud,” I answered nonchalantly. Marco seemed to find that hilarious as he began to laugh. He ended up leaning just a bit to bump our shoulders in a joking kind of manner. But holy fuck, I was so glad. I could have sworn my fucking stomach flipped as I felt his warm skin rub against my arm. Fuck! I had forgotten I was even fucking shirtless too. Holy damn.

 “You sure love to give your friends nicknames,” he speculated, moving back to lean on his hands behind him.

“Come on, you do it too. Admit it,” I retorted. He chuckled again, stretching out his legs to dig his surprisingly freckled-less feet into the sand. I had a brief moment to take in his fucking hot legs too. Oh lord. They were so fucking white that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. And the fact that he didn’t have many freckles on them only proved my guess that he never wore shorts or went outside or something.

“No snarky ones like that though. That’s just mean, Jean,” he giggled. I didn’t even fucking care what he meant. All I cared about was how he said my name. He said my fucking name again and holy damn. I think I could grow to get used to the way his accent altered it in such a hot way.

“Did you have a good morning?” He asked once I didn’t reply right away. The fucking worst thing was I caught myself staring at him with probably the most ridiculous fucking face. Thank fucking god he wasn’t looking at me.

“Hah? Oh yeah, pretty ace. We rode camels,” I explained.

“How was it?” He smiled, finally looking over to me. Instead of looking back at him, I turned my head towards the guys in the distance.

“Smelly and fucking painful. I’m gobsmacked my balls didn’t fall off.”

He laughed, throwing his head back. I guess I must have sounded like I was complaining or something. Fuck, I don’t even know. Why was he even fucking laughing at me? All I could do at that moment was awkwardly chuckle with him and take a quick sneak peek at his freckled neck and shoulders.

Once his laughter calmed he finally replied. “That’s what you would normally expect from riding any sort of animal.”

“Right...” I answered (thank fucking heavens I didn’t turn his statement into something dirty. Oh fuck. Screw that. With a body like his, I was dying for him to ride me. Shit. I was having the wrong fucking kinds of thoughts, wasn’t I?) and dug my own feet into the warm sand. God. Even though my ass still fucking hurt from the ride, I still somehow managed to still sit on the sand.

“What about you?” I eventually asked.

“We saw the sunrise this morning here at the beach. It was quite nice, aye” he explained. Of course, as fucking usual, his voice got louder and so fucking passionate as he began to explain everything he did. It sure as hell sounded like they had a full on fucking morning and it sure beats what we did. In comparison we were lazy fucking asses.

“Want some chips, Marco?” Sasha’s voice interrupted his chatter.

“No, I’m alright thanks,” he replied, shaking his head ever so slightly. God. What a fucking good mannered gentlemen. Although, knowing that he probably had strict parents only reminded me that obviously he would be uptight about that kind of shit. The scrunching of his nose every time I swore was enough of a fucking giveaway.

But Sasha’s interruption reminded that I haven’t had lunch yet and I reached straight for my backpack. At least I was prepared and fucking ready with a sandwich and pastries from the breakfast buffet.

“Isn’t that from the cruise?” Marco questioned once he saw me pull it out.

“Hell yeah, this shit is real good,” I replied, digging straight into the ham sandwich as soon as the lid came off.

“You actually took it off the cruise? I’m amazed they allowed you to,” he chuckled. “May I?”

I just grunted a reply as I stuffed my mouth full of the heavenly good sandwich. Thank fucking god the bread was still soft or I would have been mad. Marco eagerly took one of the pastries and started nibbling away. And as soon as he reached half way he devoured the fucking thing faster than I usually would. Holy fucking shit.

“Their pastries are so nice,” he commented, rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Fuck, you think so too?” My eyes grew fucking huge when he said it. Holy shit! Finally! Fucking finally someone understood! Hell yeah!

He chuckled and flashed me a bright smile. “I love sweet things, so definitely.”

Somehow we spent however fucking long talking about the food the cruise had and before I even knew it I was packing away the container. I was going to sit back onto the towel and carry on having another proper chat with Marco, but of fucking course luck was never on my side. Why the fuck did I never see it coming?

Instead, I got a fucking ball straight to the head and a bunch of fucking dipshits laughing at me.

“Horse-face! Are you gonna’ join us or what!?” The shit-stain called. He didn’t even fucking apologise. That annoying fucker!

“You fucking wanker!” I yelled back, chucking the ball towards them as they neared. And just like the fucking shithead he was, he misjudged and landed on his fucking face as he reached for the ball. That ought to teach him not to throw the ball at my head.

“Come on, Marco,” Reiner encouraged.

“Shall we?” Marco asked, tilting his head towards me as I rubbed my head. That actually fucking hurt big time. Like a sore ass and blow to the stomach wasn’t enough fucking pain for the day. Of course I had to get a blow to the head. What was this? Injure Jean day or some shit?

I ended up sighing, removing my sunnies and stood. Might as fucking hell do what the dipshits wanted. We joined the guys and decided to play some strange variation of volleyball without a net, but rather a line in the sand.

And I had to be fucking honest; it was a good way to pass the time. Reiner and Bertl were surprisingly hell good at it, especially fucking Reiner. Even I fucking shat my pants whenever he smashed the ball in my direction. Marco on the hand was a little embarrassing to watch. (I swear, I wasn’t fucking perving. He was just hard not to look at because holy damn! He had such good fucking arms and those shoulders and holy fucking hell) And even though he was a little bad at this game, he was a hell of a lot better than what I remember blondie being. At least Marco could fucking spike a ball unlike blondie who would wag every PE lesson unless it was mandatory.

And I admit that Reiner and Bertl weren’t bad guys. After spending an hour playing volleyball or some shit with them, I decided they were pretty good mates. At least neither of them gave me weird fucking glares afterwards. And better yet, Bertl wasn’t even shitting his pants whenever I looked in his direction. Oh lord. Thank fucking god.

The only annoying thing out of all of it was that the shit-stain got along with Reiner almost too well. Like so fucking well that they loved to taunt me whenever I screwed up or missed the ball. At least I wasn’t the only one. Marco was getting almost as much as I was.

 

-

 

Armin, Erwin and his crazy group of friends eventually joined us, (and the look Armin had on his face when he saw all of us playing a game was fucking priceless. His crazy hair and flashed face only told me he had one hell of a morning too) which meant awkward introductions like fucking last time. Of course Erwin had to be his usual mannered blond-stud self and shake just about every fucking person’s hand. And even through all of it, he did not once release his left arm off of Armin’s waist. And I was surprisingly happy to see the approving smiles of Reiner and Bertl. But the best part was the knowing look Marco gave me. (Fuck! The way he arched his brow was actually fucking cute.)

But, the shit-stain had to open his big fucking mouth and ask the oldies to join us. Erwin and Armin opted to join us and I swear Levi was going to say no but was dragged into this whole fucking thing when the blond-stud offered to drink some specific shitty wine tonight. Sasha joined in our team with Armin while the other two went to Marco’s. Mike and Hanji excused themselves when Hanji finally took fucking note of the sea. I just remember her running towards the waves and yelling something about jelly fish or some shit while Mike stood by to keep tally. (And take pictures with the camera Armin shoved onto him. I nearly fucking laughed at him for it.)

“Let’s get the losing team to do something,” the shit-stain suggested.

“What do you propose?” Erwin asked. At that point Armin shot him warning look and then immediately faced me to show his disagreement of the suggestion. Obviously the blondie knew just as well as I that we’d lose fucking quickly against the other team. Like fucking seriously. As soon as both Levi and the blond-stud took off their shirts, we all knew we were fucking screwed. Why on fucking earth did the shit-stain have to open that annoying shithole of his!? And more importantly, why the fuck were both of these men so ripped!?

“I say losing team should run to the nudes and back,” Connie added. I could have fucking sworn I heard Armin gasp, or at least, someone did. Maybe even I did.

“Fuck no, I’m not doing that,” I argued. No way in fucking hell was I going to get naked and run to the nudist area. Was Connie out his fucking mind? Not even the blondie would do that!

“Why don’t we just get the losing team to run into the water?” Sasha interrupted. After a round of nods, we all agreed.

And that’s how we wasted another hour. Eventually Mikasa and Annie joined in too, after noticing how intense our make shift volleyball (seriously, was this even fucking considered volleyball? And even with this many people?)  game was. And holy fucking shit was it intense. I was sweating like I was in a fucking desert. Not to mention it got even fucking hotter and more humid than it was earlier on. (I’m amazed at how many people even came to the beach today. By the looks of their towels, majority of them were cruise passengers too.)

And like it would take a fucking smart person to figure it out; we lost. Big fucking time. Even when Connie got serious we still fucking lost. (And normally he’s a really good sportsman. Fuck!) Hell, even Armin was doing pretty good. (I think he was just putting up a good fucking show for Erwin because he sure as hell does not try this fucking hard normally when it comes to sports.)

“We lose!” Connie announced. And before any of us could blink, he flung Sasha again over his shoulders and ran like a fucking mad man yelling, “I’m not afraid of jellyfish!” While Sasha screamed and pounded her fists against his back. We all laughed at their scene because holy shit, they were a great match.

And as decided, everyone who played headed towards the wet sand and stopped just before the water would reach everyone’s toes. The shit-stain and Mikasa took a quick dip and was out of that water fast as fucking lightning. Not that I could fucking blame them or anything. I wasn’t keen on getting stung either. I heard they were pretty fucking intense jellyfish that could mean the end to your limbs.

Armin eventually sighed and took off his tank top. He handed it over to Erwin before looking over at the water again with a pout. I knew he wasn’t looking forward to this and as much as I wished that he didn’t have to do it, but rules were rules.

“Come on, Armin,” I ended up giving up. If he wasn’t fucking keen on running into the water, I might as well give him a lift. (That pout of his was too hard to say no to. Fuck it. I was a dead man as soon as he sighed when we first reached the water) I crouched down on the ground and waited for him to climb on my back.

“Are you sure?” He mumbled. I just nodded a reply.

“Armin, I’m shocked,” the blond-stud chuckled as he saw Armin cling to my back. (And oh lord, the way he wrapped his legs around my waist probably made the blond-stud fucking jealous as hell. (Especially when I held him steady under his ass) Because holy shit he clung to me so tightly that all I could feel was his soft skin against my back. Holy fuck I could not ignore the whiff of nostalgia) I think Armin shot him a glare or some shit, but I had no fucking idea as I stood. Instead I heard laughter from the others as they watched us.

“Yeeehaw! Go Armin! Ride ‘em cowboy!” Sasha sang. And this time, I threw her a fucking finger too which earned me a howls of laughter from Eren.

I was so fucking proud of myself for doing this. Armin was mumbling some shit about the jellyfish and told me how he’d yell if he spotted one but I just ignored him. The water was surprisingly warm and clear and even though there were waves, it was actually fun. (Who the fuck was I even kidding? It would have been fun if I wasn’t looking out for fucking jellyfish) I was already waist deep into the water until I finally started getting freaked out by the giant as fucking waves. And honestly, I have no fucking regrets for what happened next. If you ask me, the blondie fucking deserved it. (For all the times he made me hold that fucking heavy as camera)

And when I mean no regrets, I mean I felt something by my fucking legs and I freaked the fuck out. So much that I fucking jumped (and shoved my hands in the air. I have no fucking idea why, it all happened so quick. I even fucking screamed. Fuck! I don’t care if I’m a pansy or some shit) and somehow (yes, fucking somehow) flung Armin off me. Apparently he wasn’t holding onto me as tightly as I thought since all I heard was a slap of something hitting the water as I jumped away. But like I fucking cared. I ran out of the fucking water like my life depended on it. (Even though my legs were killing me) Cause holy fuck, I didn’t want to risk getting fucking stung and losing a leg.

Of course, only after everyone laughed at our scene and once I reached the shallow water did I realise Armin was no longer clinging to me. (So that’s what the slap of water was) Instead when I turned around I saw him getting washed up to the shore by the waves. Eventually he was fucking crawling towards me, absolutely fucking drenched. And the scowl he wore was enough to make me shit my pants.

“Armi-” And before I could even fucking finish my sentence I got a slap of wet sand in my face. And even fucking worse; in my fucking mouth!

“You fruit loop!” Armin yelled, still on his hands and knees. Before I could even retort he threw another fistful of wet sand. But this time it slapped my chest and fucking hell did it hurt!

Out of everyone who laughed, I heard Marco’s the most and I couldn’t help but smirk. If he wanted to laugh at my fucking pain, then he could get a wet sand ball too. Except... I fucked up. No, I fucked up real bad. The ball I threw at him splattered onto his stomach and some fucking how, sand droplets landed on the short fucking Levi who stood next to him. And I swear, the fucking scowl the agro man shot the both of us as Marco still laughed was enough to make any fucking person run home in fear.

And before I knew it Marco was shoved into me and we were both pushed backwards into the rolling waves.

“Levi, that was hardly fair,” I heard the blond-stud’s throaty laugh while Marco and I stood, both fucking wet as Armin. But it didn’t matter. It was hilarious. And the wet sand fight we had following it was the best fun I had all fucking day.

(And might I add, Levi did indeed get the biggest sand ball to the face. For once, I congratulate the shit-stain for doing something fucking right.)

 

-

 

Not long after the sand war, we cleared our stuff and headed to the grassy area with the palms trees. We had cleaned off under the outdoor showers and then dried up to head back into Broome, even though it was just after two in the arvo.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I saw Armin and the blond-stud’s reactions when Marco had placed on his cork hat on again. Nor could I have fucking missed Hanji’s cackle and long explanation of where the fucking hat came from.

Thankfully there was a shuttle bus by the time we reached the parking lot and I fucking celebrated when Armin allowed me to sit next to Marco on the bus. But I frowned almost instantly when I saw him pull out an almost identical camera as Armin. _Oh_. Oh fuck no.

It seemed that Marco had a mother fucking ‘photography’ mode too. Shit! Was I the only one who didn’t fucking suffer from it!? I was doomed to aim for guys who were fucking touristy as hell!? Obviously my view was blocked as Marco took photos and the closer we got to the town in Broome I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t checked my emails yet. And knowing that this was the last port to make use of internet until a whole fucking week later, I had to say something.

“Let’s go to that fast food place for wifi,” I suggested.

“Please!” Mikasa quickly added. Leave it to Mikasa to back me up on that. I was amazed that she had fucking survived without a laptop for this length of time.

Everyone agreed and I couldn’t help but feel mighty fucking proud that I suggested something everyone wanted. Thankfully the ride was short ‘cause sitting in wet boardies in a bus was a hell of a fucking pain. (Even though I really enjoyed sitting so close to Marco) And I was even more fucking thankful when the walk to the place wasn’t even a five minute fucking walk. Hell yeah! Wet boardies and long distance walking was not what I wanted. Fuck, the rash that would have formed was too fucking painful to even think about.

The air-conned fast food outlet was fucking heaven and since I hadn’t eaten anything decent except for the sandwich, I went ahead and ordered a burger. Obviously as soon as I stood in line, nearly every other fucking person decided they wanted a meal too. Not that I could blame them. We still had a long as time until dinner tonight.

And only after we sat down (and thank heavens, once fucking more, for Armin for giving his seat up so Marco could sit next to me) did all the phones get whipped out. And as soon as I realised Marco had a smartphone, I fucking leapt for joy. Hell yeah! It meant we could exchange numbers.

“Could I have your number?” I asked, after finishing off my meal. I didn’t exactly think it through when I suddenly realised that he probably didn’t have an Aussie number. God! Why the fuck did I even ask!? Sheepshaggers didn’t have the same numbers as we did... right?

“I think maybe you’d prefer my email?” He chuckled, chewing on his fries while looking at his phone in his other hand. It was the first time I looked at him since the bus ride and I couldn’t help but actually grow just a little red when I realised how close we were again.

I didn’t mention this... but, the ride next to him was fucking glorious and tight. I was so close to running the back of my hand against his leg in the bus, but decided it was the wrong fucking time, especially if he freaked out. (I seriously missed up on the greatest chance, didn’t I?) Sitting next to each other again with our shoulders touching was a miracle. (And an even bigger one that I could hold my self control well again) The only thing that caught me by surprised was how red his face was during the whole ride. Like really fucking red. Anyway...

“Yeah. Unless you have the latest social network,” I replied. He shot his head up towards me and only then did I realise how fucking close we were. I could even feel when he breathed out in shock at his own realisation before quickly looking down towards his phone again. And this time, I sure as hell did not miss how red his ears went as well. Was I actually finally making him blush?

“H-hand me your phone,” he stuttered, holding out his palm. I gave it to him quickly and watched over his shoulder as he added himself on the app for me. And honestly, I was fucking celebrating. This was fucking unreal. He was actually allowing me to friend him on the latest social network. Holy fucking shit! It was like he was fucking giving me his phone number or shit. I was finally getting somewhere. Fuck yeah! And I definitely didn’t miss the small bump Armin gave me to my other shoulder as he overheard everything. Blondie fucking approved too. Hell yeah!

 

-

 

And just like before, the bus ride back to the ship was alright. Being squashed next to Marco was like a dream and this time I didn’t even need self control. I was so fucking tired that I just rolled my head back and patiently waited to finally arrive back at the wharf. The time spent in the sun finally took a toll on me and I knew tonight was going to be one hell of an early one.

Eventually we reached that giant parking lot at around three and then I remembered that we still had to walk on a long as fucking jetty. Not that I really cared all that much since it meant I could walk longer next to Marco before we’d separate for the evening. But my fucking ass was so sore and I could tell any more walking meant my legs were gonna’ pop off.

“Thanks for today,” Marco broke the silence as we walked along the jetty. I just hummed a reply as I stared out towards the wharf in the distance. “Let’s hang out again tomorrow after dinner?”

Now that, my dear readers was something that threw me fucking off. (He seriously loved to do this, didn’t he? How the fuck did he act so smooth and shit!?)It threw me off so much that I fucking paused for a moment and nearly tripped over my thongs. (I seriously did not fucking think he’s ask that. I was planning on asking him myself. But hell yeah! It was like he was asking me on a date! I was making some good fucking pointers today!) And of fucking course he chuckled and oh dear lord, he grabbed hold onto my arm (holy shit his hand was so fucking smooth) just to make sure I didn’t fall. And the strangest thing was, only in that moment did I realise that he was actually fucking taller than me.

I didn’t really care after all this time but his question had thrown me off so much that my brain went to fucking putty. Like actual fucking putty. So much that Armin had to come to the rescue.

“What time are you having dinner tomorrow, Marco?” Armin intervened. I could have sworn he snickered or some shit over my stumble. At least he knew I needed fucking help. He probably overheard or some shit since he and the blond-stud was walking behind us.

“Five-thirty. We want to watch most of the Kimberley Coast sailing as possible,” Marco replied and only then pulling his hand away from me as we carried on walking.

“Care to join us for some wine then?” The blond-stud asked soothingly out of fucking nowhere. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Of course he’d have followed the blondie towards me. It was like they were attached by the fucking hip all day. It only reminded me that I still had to shove my nose in Armin’s business once we got the time to be alone again.

“That sounds choice,” Marco agreed. Oh god. No, let me correct that. Oh fucking god. He used a fucking sheepshagger word again. And his accent was so fucking thick that I actually snorted. I was so close to laughing full fucking on but instead got an elbow into my ribs from Armin. Of course, I was cool as fuck as covered it with a cough. Right. As if Marco would get pissed off at me for laughing.

“Marco, you seem awfully red, are you alright?” Armin asked, leaning a forward to look at him. I quirked my eyebrows and eyed Marco curiously. And honestly, the blondie had a fucking point. (How did I not realise this when he grabbed hold of me?) Marco was bright red and I had no fucking idea whether it was because he was blushing or what. But as soon as his feet stopped, I knew it definitely was not what I thought.

“Oh no,” he gasped. He actually fucking gasped. And as soon as he reached for his cheeks, his eyes widened like an owl. I stopped almost fucking immediately to do a double take on him. He looked so fucking shocked. Holy fuck, was he okay!?

“Jean...” he breathed (and oh lord, it sounded so fucking good but I was so worried that I had no idea how to even react. If he had breathed my name like that at any other time, I swear to god I would have cracked a fat. But oh fuck, he looked so shocked.)

“What is it?”  I asked. Armin and Erwin joined me, looking just as fucking worried.

“I didn’t rub any sunscreen, did I?”

Oh.... _Oh_. Oh shit. I honestly, like fucking honestly, felt so bad for him. So fucking bad that I couldn’t even have laughed at his stupid mistake. Because holy shit he didn’t and we were out in that sun all fucking afternoon and holy fuck. He was going to be in so much pain tonight and holy fuck. He was so fucking red already that you couldn’t even see his freckles and.... Oh Marco. Poor, poor Marco.

“Do you have cream for it?” Armin immediately asked, but he got no reply. All we got was a face of horror.

“R-Reiner!” He called instead. And he actually fucking sobbed. Reiner nearly leapt into Marco as soon as his name left the freckled boy’s mouth. I was so amazed because holy damn. I didn’t know such a bulky fucking guy as him could move that fast.

“Did you pack aloe vera?”

And you’d think after such a fucking simple question you’d get a simple answer. But oh fuck. It seemed like I wasn’t the only unlucky one on this ship. And it almost made me fucking happy. No, I was already celebrating. Marco was suddenly hit by a giant strike of bad luck and watching it unravel was almost fucking painful but so entertaining.

All Marco got as a reply was a slap on his back (I’m pretty sure he winced) and a throaty laugh from Reiner. Everyone else even turned around as they watched Reiner grab his stomach and howl out. I just crossed my arms in disappointment. Why was he fucking laughing at his mate!? Wasn’t he meant to answer!? I mean, come on!

“Why are you laughing, sheepshagger?” I scoffed.

“I’m laughing ‘cause we ain’t got any,” he finally howled. “Marco, you look like a fried lobster, bro!”

Marco’s reaction was the funniest of all though. Let me fucking tell you. So far Marco has been nothing but a kind ass fucking guy. No swear words. No fucking nothing. All he did was groan out “You egg!” (What the fuck did that even mean? Was that some sheepshagger lingo or what?)

But at that split fucking second I saw something I’m pretty fucking sure I’d never see again. He slapped Reiner’s shoulder and it looked so fucking weird. His fucking face was hilarious though. But still actually fucking weird.

“Annie! Bring the camera! You gotta’ get a shot of this!” Reiner howled, swiping off his tears. So much for being a fucking good mate. And here I thought the shit-stain was a living nightmare. It seemed Marco had it just as fucking bad.

 

-

 

Getting onto the ship was easy enough, but due to the fucking ordeal we had on the jetty, we made it on the ship with only half an hour to spare. I guided Marco to our cabin room to hand him over some extra aloe vera as Armin insisted that he’d nearly fucking die if I didn’t as soon as we got back on the ship. I sure as hell did not miss him eyeing the room curiously as I fished for it.

Rest of the evening was uneventful. Like fuck all happened. Well, nothing grand that is worth the share. We watched the porting at four and of course the blondie was freaking out and filming the whole thing. We hung around Erwin’s group until it was time to get ready and did our thing.

Dinner at eight was a bore (and yes, we did have that shitty wine Erwin had promised Levi) and this time I didn’t even care that I was openly smiling like a fucking idiot at Marco who did, as Reiner said, look like a roasted lobster. (But the weirdest part was he didn’t seem to meet my gaze as often as usual. And when he did the smile he sent me was so fucking timid. Was he embarrassed or some shit?) I could only hope that he’d be able to fucking sleep tonight.

Armin spent most of the dinner yabbering his mouth off to me and the other two shits about his day and how we ‘missed a lot of good sights.’ But hey, I was actually glad for the blondie. At least he was having a good time and far more luck than I was. Here he was, spending the whole day with his blond-stud and probably already doing the root while there I was, still trying to earn Marco’s fucking affection. Or just... you know... trying to find the right time to throw my moves on him.

I guess maybe I was still being a fucking coward or some shit. I had so many chances today to move whatever friendship we were forming forward and yet I did shit all. And it seemed like I really did need Armin’s advice on this crap. Hey, if he could lure me fucking in back in high school, then he sure as hell could lend me move pointers. ‘Cause at the pace I was going, I was just going to leave this ship as friends with the bloke I had the hots for.

The ending of the night was so pretty good though. And this time, I didn’t mind being dragged along into that theatre place. Some comedian guy was having a show and surprisingly it was fucking hilarious.

Afterwards we somehow lost site of the shit-stain and the agro man. And that only made me that much more fucking suspicious. (I still hoped to god that he owed me ten bucks) But apparently Hanji said something about Levi dragging the shit-stain to some place after he spilled his beer on the shorter man during the show. I was just fucking glad that when I turned to look at Armin, he was already flashing me the same knowingly fucking smirk. So he was suspicious just as me.

If I had to be honest, it felt weird to hang around such a big group as they all paired off. Mikasa and I spoke for bit but I couldn’t help but let my mind wonder to Marco instead. He didn’t tell me what he was doing that evening and I could only guess that whatever he planned was cut short. The look of pain on his face during dinner told me exactly what he’d be doing afterwards. And maybe it was my own stupid fucking fault for not thinking about it either. Okay, fine. I felt fucking guilty, alright!?

At least Mikasa was being nice enough to me even when we were upstairs on Deck 12. For the most part she (and later on, Connie and Sasha) allowed my mind to wonder without listening to them yabber about some shit I didn’t really fucking care about.  And even though I wasn’t fully concentrating on anything, I sure did not miss the glance she threw at Armin and the blond-stud as they shared some kind of weird fucking kiss by the bar a couple of metres from us.

And maybe. Just fucking maybe I was jealous because of it. But if anything, it made me that much more eager to pull a move on Marco. And what better evening would it be than the following night? It was like god had fucking paved the perfect set up for me.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for being my beta readers!
> 
> Did everyone enjoy the chapter!? Poor Marco got sunburnt. I guess they were both too distracted to even think of sunscreen! (So..... I’m going to give a hint. Is anyone taking note of Marco’s reactions?) I want to excuse my super bad Reiner. In my mind he’s a bit of a jokester who can push people’s buttons but all the while can still be a great friend, haha.
> 
> Jean’s horse from the anime somehow became a camel... I’m sorry?
> 
> And go for gold, Jean! You can do it! Next chapter they’ll be sailing past Kimberley Coast and finally Jean will do something. I think?
> 
> As for any extra information about Broome: there are indeed only limited wifi areas! Google told me that the only McDonalds Broome has and the internet cafe next door to it has wifi. That must be really annoying for day tourists!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Bugger – two things: damn and also could be used to explain some (one/thing) mischievous or funny.  
> Royal Easter Show – a show in Sydney during Easter  
> Boardies – board shorts  
> Wag – ditch a class  
> Aloe Vera – a transparent green-tinted cream that you rub onto sunburn  
> Bro – kiwi slang for ‘friend’ or your brother  
> Egg – kiwi slang that originally comes from a New Zealand movie. (People was throwing this word around way too much four years ago) Normally it replaces an offensive word. Like instead of saying ‘you’re an ass’ you could say ‘you’re such an egg’


	9. Kimberley Coast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos and hits and bookmarks and oh!!! Thank you!
> 
> As I’ve said with Darwin and Broome, I’ve never been in the Kimberley region. And well... there’s not much to say for Kimberley Coast. Sadly there wasn’t the option for them to climb off. I’ve read up on it through the cruise line schedule I’m using and it stated that they only sail past it slowly during sunset. But, if you were to travel to the region, there are short cruises to take to see all the islands and canals.
> 
> If you don’t know what Kimberley Coast looks like, please google it! It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s literally just the coast of Australia. (North –West, I believe. Maybe a little more north than west though) There are some small islands scattered around, but the canals are beautiful and the coastlines are red and rocky. (Oh, and there are a couple of waterfalls if you go past certain areas.)
> 
> So! As usual, sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise!

_Day 12  
_ _In which Jean receives something unexpected._

* * *

 

The following day, Sunday (January 12th) started off real weird. And when I mean really fucking weird I mean there was some stranger in our cabin. Okay, scratch that. He wasn’t a stranger. It was more like our cabin steward. And only after I sat up did I realise that it was actually him and not some random fucking bloke.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Gunther greeted. Obviously the other dipshits were still trying to wake up too since no one seemed to reply.

“Waah?” Armin groaned as he sat up in his own bed with the craziest bed hair I had seen in a long fucking time. Holy fuck, how the hell did his hair end up like that!?

“Sorry to wake you. But, do you have any washing?”

“Oh,” Armin sighed, flopping back onto the bed. “Forgot it was Sunday.”

“Again, sorry for waking you. I thought perhaps you’d like to receive your clean clothes by five this afternoon,” Gunther explained as he walked back towards the door.

Armin and I just crawled out of our beds (thank fucking god my ass was a hell of a lot better) after realising that we probably should have thought of that before heading to bed the previous night. I tried so hard not to laugh when Gunther stood awkwardly by the door as he realised we were both only in our grundies. Surely he must have been used to seeing this kind of shit? The shit-stain and Connie both jumping down from their top bunks interrupted that thought, even when I was still tempted as hell to ask if he had ever seen worse.

“It’s only ten,” Armin stretched once our clothes were sent off with Gunther. “What does everyone want to do today?”

I ignored his question and set out to get changed into whatever clean clothes I did have left. (Surprisingly it was just a pair of boardies and a t-shirt I somehow didn’t wear over the week.) There was no point in answering his question since I’d be stuck with him all day anyway. Not that I really minded because I still had to get him alone at some point.

“Connie and I booked a martini class for twelve,” Eren explained, pulling his own shirt on.

“What? And you didn’t invite us?” I growled. How fucking rude. A martini class sounded like the best fucking idea for the day.

“Man, you guys didn’t invite me to the cocktail class,” Connie complained. “We had to do something without you two.”

“Fair enough. Do you know what Sasha and Mikasa are doing?” Armin interjected. I guess it was to avoid some kind of cocky fight between the shit-stain and me. (Cause I fucking swear, the look he was wearing told me he was ready to send me a remark.)

“Sash said something about doing their nails or some shit.”

“Alright then. Jean, it seems we’re alone today,” the blondie smiled as he placed on his cap.

I just grunted a reply and headed for the door. A day alone with Armin sounded good. At least that meant I could finally have a long and lengthy chat with him about all the shit going on between Marco and I. Not that there was much going on, but more like where the fuck I had to go to next.

“Oh, guys! Don’t forget, we have to book our tour tomorrow for Lombok,” Armin added before he was out the door. “Does after breakfast tomorrow sound good?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Connie flashed us his thumb.

“See you guys later,” Eren sent us his shit-eating grin and before we could even close the door he called out. “And Jean!”

“What is it, Jaeger?” I yelled back.

“Baaaaa.”

That fucking shit-stain. Fucking screw him. He just fucking made a sheep noise at me. God fucking damn it. Such a fucking wanker! And here I thought he was going to be fucking civil about Marco being a sheepshagger. What was I even fucking expecting?

“You wanker!” I yelled, slamming the door shut and stormed down the hallway.

Anyway, the previous night we all headed for bed early (what a fucking surprise) because we were all so fucking tired from the day at the beach. And after one hell of a good night rest, I was ready and pumped for the day. Except, there wasn’t much for Armin and I to do other than waste the day away. We didn’t really plan any activities to do like everyone else (I mean fuck, even the blond-stud’s group had something planned apparently) so that meant we could laze around yet again.

As soon as we reached the top deck I was reminded of why the fuck you don’t normally travel in this region during the summer time. Not only was it fucking cloudy as hell, (let us all pray that it does not rain) but it was fucking humid too. So humid that it hit me like a tidal wave and left the craziest fucking sweat on my skin.

Surprisingly enough no one else seemed to care as much. I was fucking amazed at how many people were lazily laying on the deck chairs and swimming in the pools. Weren’t any of them sweating their fucking asses of in this heat!?

“I hope it clears by tonight,” I heard Armin muse as we headed over towards the buffet. And I swear to god, walking back into an air-conned room was like fucking heaven. But knowing my luck, we weren’t going to be indoors for very long.

Our breakfast was surprisingly quiet. Armin was making small talk and even though I should have been a good mate and listened, I didn’t really care that much. He was talking about some Broome shit he saw the previous day again and honest to fucking god, it wasn’t really all that interesting to me. In fact, the pastry I was nibbling on was far more exciting. Only because it was the same type that Marco had taken from me the previous day. It had been a pineapple one and that only made me smirk knowingly. He sure liked his pineapple, that’s fucking sure.

“What are you smiling for?” Armin broke my train of thought. The curiosity he wore only made me smile even bigger.

“The pastry,” I answered, before gulping down the rest.

“Are they really that good?”

“They cure fucking hangovers, Armin,” I retorted and leaned back onto the cushioning. “That’s not why though.” The rise in Armin’s eyebrows told me to continue as he sliced up the bacon he had left.

“Marco devoured the same one yesterday at the beach.”

“Oh, I see. So he likes pastries too?”

I couldn’t help but smile as Armin asked. I was actually fucking talking about Marco to Armin. And being able to talk about Marco only made me realise that I knew stuff about him that Armin didn’t. Why the fuck was I even proud? Considering that I’ve already known him for six fucking days, I barely even knew anything about him. Well, the stuff that I wanted to know. I would have thought he’d open up a lot more to me, but hell no. It seemed the freckled boy was a fucking closed book or some shit.

“Sweet things in general, man,” I replied nonchalantly.

“Ahh, he seems the type,” Armin nodded his head.

“You have no fucking idea, Armin. The amount of pina coladas he drinks makes me wonder if even his sprog tastes like pineapple,” I joked. Armin seemed to have found it hilarious as he suddenly snorted a laughed. As soon as it left his mouth he almost instantly covered it by his hand to control it.

“Speaking of which, why don’t we buy some fruit cocktails and head over to the secluded deck?” He suggested once he calmed down. Hell yeah!

“Sounds ace,” I agreed. Spending another day on the padded deck chairs sounded like one fucking good idea. And the fruit cocktails would only make it even better.

Along the way we stopped by an ice cream stand, cause who the fuck would miss up on that? (Too bad it melted so fucking quickly as we walked) And of course the blondie asked to pass by the mini library the ship had by one of the cafes. Leave it to the fucking Armin to read while on holiday. Not that I could blame him or anything. Not even I thought of what I would be doing once we were on the deck chairs. Maybe just laying there would be enough. It seemed everyone did that anyway.

And just like Deck 12 and 14, it was crowded as fuck by the secluded area. (It seemed most of the people who booked the area decided it was the best fucking day to lay here or some shit.) We were lucky as hell to even find two spare deck chairs next to each other. And that was only after Armin had a mini spaz over the fact that we could see the coastline in the distance. I actually fucking laughed when he whined about not having his camera nearby. Thank fucking god he didn’t head back indoors to get it.

And that’s how I spent rest of my morning. It was one hell of a good way to spend it with the fucking humidity. (There was actually shit all you could do in the heat. It was hard to even fucking breathe while just laying there) And the amount of fruit cocktails I sculled down was unreal. I was surprised as fuck that I wasn’t even getting drunk on this shit.

At some point I headed up to the buffet to grab two platefuls of lunch for Armin and myself. Fuck, I was being one hell of a good mate. I blame the fucking alcohol. Or maybe it was the heat. Or maybe Marco was just rubbing off on me. It seemed like something he would do.

It was around one in the arvo when I went to grab my fifth cocktail (and Armin’s) at the mini bar, when I saw Annie, Sasha and Mikasa enter the area. I was so fucking surprised to see them together that I nearly even fucking dropped my card. I waved my hand to call them over after the bartender had my card.

“We spotted Annie and Marco in the sauna area,” Sasha explained when she was buying her own drink. Annie and Mikasa had left to find some deck chairs some distance away from where Armin and I were seated. Of course, Armin probably had his fucking nose in a book so he didn’t even notice.

“Where’s Marco?” I asked. And why the fuck didn’t you bring him along?

“He went somewhere with the other two. I feel really bad for him. You should have seen how sunburnt he was. Poor guy,” she explained.

“Should have asked him to come along,” I stated. She was going to reply but instead the bartender whom was different from before handed us our drinks. (The one who we handed our cards to was obviously busy doing some other shit.)

The funniest thing was he looked so familiar. I couldn’t exactly place my finger on it. But what the fuck was this guy even pulling at? His hair... His fucking hair reminded me of a mixture between Marco’s and mine. It was like he loved the fucking colour scheme and undercut from mine but liked the style of Marco’s. What was even up with that? (Seriously, why were there so many fucking people on this ship with the same undercut as me?) And before I turned around I took a quick peek at his nametag. Oluo. What a fucking weird name that was.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” Sasha finally replied, taking a sip from her drink. I grunted a reply to her and started walking towards Armin.

“But you know... he told me to say ‘thank you’ if I saw you,” she called out.

If I didn’t know any fucking better I would have thought I scored hell fucking good. That was a good fucking sign, wasn’t it? That he was thinking of me and wanted Sasha to pass on the message. I could only hope that his sunburn wasn’t killing him and somehow that thought only made me that much more eager to see him tonight.

Once I reached our deck chairs, I found Armin lying with his head to the opposite side. The book was on his lap and I couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that he probably had fallen asleep. The humidity and the rocking of the ship was fucking grand and it made me tired as hell too.

When I had hovered over him my eye caught on yet another fucking hickey. This time it was lower down on his neck, but still easily hidden by his hair. God. The blond-stud was so fucking smart. Why hadn’t I ever thought of that kind of shit back in the day when I dated the blondie? It would have fucking helped so much.

“Armin,” I shook him gently after I placed down my cocktail onto the deck. He hummed as he turned his face towards me. Guess he wasn’t sleeping after all. I handed over his cocktail which he took so fucking eagerly. It had been a while since we had the fourth and I knew he was fucking thirsty just as I was.

“When did he give you that hickey?” I asked after sitting down back in my own chair. Instead of a reply, I got a short gasp, the sound of a hand slapping the skin (he slapped his neck. Probably to hide it even though it was already hidden by his hair) and holy fuck. No, holy fucking shit, was he blushing? Even his fucking ears were going red. Was Armin seriously embarrassed about this shit?

“I didn’t know he left another,” he mumbled over his straw. I couldn’t help but notice how he was trying to hide his blush with his sunnies. Ah, Armin. There was no fucking point in hiding now. This time he couldn’t tell me to shut up as there was no we knew in ear shot. It seemed to be the best fucking time to pester him.

“Come on, spill the details. Armin, I’m dying here,” I nagged, taking a sip of my own drink.

“I’ll only tell if you share afterwards,” Armin countered. Oh well. It wasn’t like I saw that fucking coming. What was it that Armin once told me? An eye for an eye or some shit? Okay, screw that. More like a fucking mutual agreement on sharing whatever shit we had.

“Deal,” I waved my hand, looking back out to the sea again. (The coastline in the distance on the left side was suddenly a lot closer than we first saw this morning. Fuck, this ship moved hell fucking fast.) When Armin said nothing in return I actually fucking grew worried. Was he seriously this fucking reluctant to tell me? So, instead I decided to get the ball rolling.

“...Does he suck better than me?”

“J-Jean!” He stuttered. I couldn’t help but laugh as he smacked my shoulder gently. Why the fuck did he never hit me hard and get on with it? Why was he always so fucking gentle with me?

“So you’ve obviously given him a be-jay,” I hinted.

“Of course I have. How could I not have?” Armin blurted out quickly. I shot my head quickly towards him again and arched a brow. (Not that he could fucking see it or anything. God, sunnies were both great and a pain in the ass at the same time.)

“I mean... yes. But there’s no way I could compare you two. That would be unfair.”

“No need to go easy on me, Armin. Even I can fucking admit none of the ones I got given at parties were good as yours,” I confessed.

Of course, I didn’t miss the blush that was still lingering on his cheeks. Sure, I may have gotten some fucking good blowjobs at high school parties, (and holy damn, some chicks could suck good. Fuck!) but none of them stood against Armin. Man, he had a mouth that fucking took me to heaven and back. Not that I’ll ever be able to tell him that properly or anything.... It may just boost his ego too high or some shit. (That brain of his was scary enough. I didn’t want him to have a fucking attitude on top of it. Shit, that’s be fucking scary as hell.)

“I’m going to ignore you said that,” he sighed with an incredulous face. The way he was rubbing the bridge of my nose told me that he was thinking about something. “But other than that, nothing else. It seems I’m not the only one who wants to go slow.”

“Are you shitting me? Have you even fucking seen the way he looks at you?” I scoffed. Was Armin even thinking fucking straight or had the drugged food finally gotten to him? Even I could fucking see the blond-stud leaping at the idea of rooting with him.

“Y-yes,” Armin stammered. “But I told him my reasons and he seemed to agree with them.” Now that sounded like the Armin I knew. I highly fucking doubted it was just a matter of a short conversation. If I could, I would bet my fucking balls that Armin somehow conned the blond-stud into it. I knew Armin so fucking well that even I could tell Armin had the blond-stud wrapped around his own finger as well. Thank fucking god I had no part in their annoying schemes. It looked fucking tiring.

“And his suite?” I added. Armin said something about seeing Erwin’s suite at one point and honestly, I was fucking dying to know what it looked like. Hell, I wanted to see if the money was worth it.

“Stunning! Absolutely beaut! It had couches and a much bigger bathroom than ours,” Armin answered. “It’s got both a tub and a shower.”

“Shit. What a fucking loaded guy,” I remarked. “I don’t stand a chance against him.”

“I didn’t know there was a competition?” He tilted his head, eyeing me curiously, I think. I could see shit all behind his sunnies.

“There isn’t. But shit, Armin. Are you even kidding me? He’s ripped and loaded. Don’t tell me he’s fucking huge too.” How the fuck are you going ‘slow’ with him!? If I was Armin I’d be rooting with him right fucking now in that room.

“I’m not even going to answer that,” he frowned. Of course, he was still blushing as crazy. I was doing hell fucking good, yeah! Looks like I still knew how to make him blush like a fucking school girl.

“You hit the fucking jackpot. And at least you’ve gotten sucked off so far.”    

“But what about you, Jean?” He broke my rhythm. Fuck. I was enjoying it so fucking much. “It seems like you’re getting somewhere now.”

“Ya reckon?” I pondered. At that thought I couldn’t help but smirk. Well, I’d eventually boast it to him at some point anyway. So, might as well be fucking honest right at the beginning. “Funny thing is... I’ve grabbed his ass twice already.” The reaction I got was not exactly what I had expected. Instead Armin choked on his drink and started to cough. And here I thought he was going to fucking congratulate me or some shit. (Like he normally does)

“What? Are you serious?” He exclaimed.

“It was accident... well the first time anyway,” I informed. I ran a hand through my slightly damp hair as I tried to think of a way to explain it without sounding like a fucking horny perve.

“How did he react?”

I laughed, finally dropping my hand from my hair. “First time he freaked the fuck out.”

“Well that’s understandable. And the second time?” Armin chuckled, rubbing a hand against his sweaty forehead even though his cap probably caught most of it. Yeah, don’t worry blondie, I was sweating fucking bucket loads too. Even fucking more than that Bertl bloke.

“I thought he was going to freak out again, but instead he just fucking smirked. Okay fine, we were pretty pissed, so I don’t think it was on purpose.”

“Isn’t that a good sign?” Armin reassured. And honestly, I didn’t really think of it in that way. Fuck. Now that he had mentioned it, I was actually fucking happy. It was one hell of a fucking good reaction. Why hadn’t I thought of it before?

“Yeah. And now I’m stuck. What do I do next?” Sure, Marco was actually fucking comfortable around me now. His mates didn’t think I was a crazy stalker anymore (I think) and better yet he did in fact ask me first to hang out this evening. Fuck.

Armin was quiet for a moment and I was going to ask what he was thinking (cause I knew it’d be some fucking good advice) but before I could open my mouth, he replied, “Maybe tonight is your chance. He did ask you first, didn’t he?”

Fuck! Could the fucking blondie read my mind or some shit? How the fuck did he even know I was thinking about that? Maybe he used that fucking smart as brain of his and read my face or something.

“Hell yeah. I was thinking tonight I could pull all my charms,” I agreed.

“What kind of charms though? Apart from what we spoke about yesterday, of course. I just don’t know how you will be able to pull it off,” he pondered. If this was a fucking struggle for Armin, then holy shit, it meant it would be a fucking pain for me. Was it really this fucking hard to get the attention of a nice, straight bloke? He was seriously a fucking piece of work, wasn’t he? Hell, it took a fucking long as time to find him in the first place.

“I was hoping you’d help me out... you know, with that brain of yours...” I confessed. There was no point in hiding it from him. I had to be fucking honest and just ask him outright for help. It wasn’t like he could be my fucking wingman again. Hell, I didn’t even need him in that sense anymore. I just needed advice on what to do next.

We went silent for a while as he took a thoughtful sip. I decided to leave him be for a while to figure some shit out. I knew he’d be able to do it. It might just take a while, but he’d fucking do it. We’re talking about Armin Arlert, a bloke who fucking lured me in at a party. Heck, he even fucking lured me in at school without even knowing.

“Oh!” He gasped. “I just remembered! Connie said yesterday that they’re having a foam party tonight on Deck 12.”

“Shit! Are you serious?” I shot up from my deck chair. Fuck yeah! Why hadn’t he mentioned this earlier on!? Hell fucking yeah! This was the best fucking chance ever.

“It’s simple then. Just do what you wanted to do before,” Armin added, sipping his cocktail until it was gone.

“Kiss him?”

“Exactly. And if he doesn’t quite agree with it, you can easily apologise and blame the crowd,” he affirmed. Holy fucking shit! That sounded like the best fucking idea ever. Armin. Holy shit.

“I owe you man,” I blurted. I owed him fucking big time! Thank fucking heavens for the blondie. I mean, it didn’t take a fucking genius to figure out this plan, but it sure as hell was great. Hell yeah!

“No you don’t, Jean,” he chuckled, opening his book to the some random page. “I just hope you succeed.”

And I fucking hoped so too. As soon as Armin went back to his book, I leant back and decided that was the end of it. Now all that was left was trying to be flirty as fuck tonight (and look fucking good) and hoping to god he agreed to attend the foam party with me.

Feeling a hell lot more relaxed, I sighed and finished off my own cocktail. And for a long time I was enjoying the quiet soothing music in the background until I heard a giant fucking crash and the sound of a fucking elephant running on the wood. What the fuck was going on?

“Sir! No running!” Someone shouted. Both Armin and I (and a lot of other fucking people) shot up from their deck chairs to see what the fucking noise was. And why...? Why the fuck did it not surprise me that it was one of the fucking dipshits I call mates?

“Armin! Jean! Hurry!” Connie shouted. He was panting so fucking heavily when he finally reached us. “They’re showing Finding Nemo in the theatre!” He exclaimed. If I didn’t know any better he was about to pull both of us from the fucking chairs.

“What!?” Sasha’s squealed in the distance. Oh fucking lord. You know what, I felt so fucking sorry for everyone around us. We must have looked like fucking idiots or something. And within a blink of an eye Sasha joined Connie.

“Let’s go!” She insisted.

The match made in heaven was gone before either of us could even fucking say anything. And the stares we were getting from the other fucking people were enough to decide that we better get the hell out. They looked so fucking mad that the peace was disrupted.

Mikasa and Annie followed us as we headed towards the door. And only after the bartender wished us a good afternoon did I remember why he looked so fucking familiar. He was the one who woke me up when Marco and I got drunk. Holy fuck. No wonder he was giving me the fucking stink eye.

And true to Connie’s words, they were going to show Finding Nemo on this giant fucking screen that hung from the curtain bar by the stage. The only fucking problem was finding a seat in the crowded area. I was sure as fucking hell that we’d be doomed to stand for the whole fucking movie until we saw Connie waving us over.

Leave it to Connie for saving us seats. Thank fucking you, Connie. But on the slow walk there, Armin stopped immediately. This only made me fucking ram right into him and nearly shove him to the ground.

“Armin?” I hissed.

“Levi,” was all he whispered. And it was so hushed that I barely even fucking heard it. And yet, even though Armin had said his name, by the time I spotted him sitting next to the shit-stain, I was still left in fucking shock. What the fuck. What. The. Fuck. Why was he with Connie and the shit-stain? Why the fuck was he even here? Why weren’t any of the other people in his group with them?

“That’s suspicious as fuck,” I whispered into Armin’s ear as we walked closer to them. Of course, I wasn’t paying that much fucking attention because all the sudden I got a blow to the stomach from none other than the blondie himself.

“What was that for!?” I groaned, rubbing my stomach.

“For your own good. I swear, that man has super-sonic hearing,” Armin explained. I didn’t even need to fucking question him. I could already tell from that creepy as scowl the man wore twenty-four fucking seven that he probably had some kind of good hearing.

“Hey guys,” Eren greeted as we finally took the seats. Armin opted to sit next to Sasha which I was fucking thankful for. (I swear, she could not fucking sit still throughout a single movie) Mikasa took the one next to me while Annie sat next to her.

I tried to scan the hall as best as I could. I was hoping to find Marco or any of the other two blokes in the crowd. But of fucking course, I was left disappointed.

“Annie says Marco is at a class,” Mikasa whispered in my ear. It caught me by such a fucking surprise that I jolted straight into Armin.

“Ouch, Jean,” Armin groaned, bumping my shoulder with his. And I sure as hell didn’t miss the giggle that escaped Mikasa as she watched me.

“You’re being really obvious,” she teased before turning her attention back to Annie. I leaned forward to thank Annie for the information, but all I got was a roll of her eyes.

“Do you want another drink? I’ll buy,” Armin interrupted me before I could even begin to ask more questions.

“Hah? Yeah, why not,” I replied. After Armin walked past us, I leaned forward again to talk to Annie. “What’s he doing then?”

“Some kind of music thing,” she shrugged her shoulders, not really bothering to meet my eyes. “Reiner wanted me to go along, but I can’t stand techno music.”

Hell, couldn’t blame her. Techno music wasn’t much of my fucking forte either. But I was somehow surprised that Marco went along with them rather than following Annie. Didn’t they have a buddy system like ours? Did they just do whatever the fuck they wanted to?

“Pst, horse-face,” Eren caught my attention. He was leaning forward, resting his extended arms and hands onto the railing in front of us. (Obviously it was low enough so we could see all of the stage and shit.)

I don’t know what the fuck I was expecting. Maybe I thought he had something fucking decent to tell me or some shit. But fuck no. All I got once I turned my head in his direction was a, “Baaaa.”

“S-shut it, Jaeger!” I growled back. Connie and Sasha obviously knew what he fucking meant and had to be fucking wankers and howl with fucking laughter. Damn them. Damn them fucking all. Fucking hell. How long was the shit-stain going to fucking tease me about Marco being a sheepshagger!?

Eventually Armin came back and handed me a strangely coloured cocktail. (And he didn’t even fucking take note of my frown or anything.) It was some kind of purple and blue coloured drink but it somehow tasted so fucking good. And I’m honestly so fucking disappointed in myself because I never got the name of it.

 

-

 

The movie was good. Well, that’s what you’d expect from Finding Nemo. Seen it a fucking million times and I swear, I almost knew all the lines. Didn’t help that Sasha wouldn’t shut the fuck up and kept saying the lines whenever she could. Even the people around us gave her fucking looks. I’m amazed no one even fucking complained.

“We got two hours to kill until dinner,” Eren yawned as we all filed out into the area with the all the shops. Of course I saw the bar we had the cocktail class in the distance and couldn’t help but smile. Strangely enough, Eld was currently there making a cocktail.

“I’d kill for some fruit right now,” Sasha declared. God. Of course she would be fucking hungry. She’s always fucking hungry.

“Okay then. Sash and I are heading upstairs. We’ll see you all after dinner,” Connie announced.

“Remember to dress nicely, please!” Armin called after them. All we got was a wave of a hand as they headed towards the stairs.

Only after standing around awkwardly for a while, did Armin finally call the shots and decide that we should head down to one of the cafes on Deck 5 and get a coffee or some shit. Well, I’d kill for a milkshake, but no way in hell was I going to have a fucking hot drink. Even though the air con was on inside, it was still pretty fucking hot.

But on our way down I couldn’t help but notice how Eren was suspiciously constantly trying to make conversation with Levi. The agro man didn’t seem very impressed and it only made me that much more fucking eager to ask why the fuck was he hanging around him in the first place. And I only got that chance once we were seated on the comfy padded chairs near the cafe.

“How come you’re hanging with Jaeger?” I blurted. And obviously no one was fucking ready for my question because not only did the shit-stain choke on his drink but both Armin and Mikasa snorted. Armin was a lot better at it as he covered it with a cough. Hell, I was just asking what everyone wanted to know. Well, except for Annie. I don’t think she gave a fucking damn. (She looked pretty confused though. Not that I can blame her or anything.)

“Connie and I found him and Erwin at the martini class,” Eren quickly explained.  

“And unfortunately the brat’s laughter is hard to ignore even with a room full of drunken idiots,” Levi confirmed, uncrossing his arms to grab hold of some weird fucking tea he ordered. That still didn’t answer the fucking question I asked. Why the hell did he tag along with Connie and the shit-stain afterwards? Armin must have pulled a face or something because the next line actually caught me off fucking guard.

“Don’t worry, blondie. Your man is probably having a swell time learning about fish,” Levi explained. I saw Armin nod an approval in the corner of my eye before I snorted.

“And you thought it’d be better to hang around Jaeger instead? How lame.”

“No. What is lame is learning about something I’d rather eat,” he countered. Oh god. The fucking scowl he threw me was enough to make me fucking shiver in fear. Holy damn he still looked fucking creepy as hell. How the fuck could they even hang around each other? No, how the fuck did Levi decide the shit-stain was more entertaining than learning about fishes? How!? Is he out of his fucking mind or what?

“Do you know what I’d rather eat?” Eren interjected, staring me right in the fucking eyes. No one even had to fucking ask ‘what’ because he replied almost instantly. “Sheeeeeep.” (I swear to fucking god I was going to strangle him.)

I was too fucking mad to even reply something cocky in return. Instead I just watched him as he began to laugh. Even the fucking agro man smirked. God fucking damn it all. Especially you, shit-stain! And all I did in the end was quirk my brow and smiled my own giant fucking shit-eating grin towards the shit-stain while moving my eyes between the two of them. “Do you owe me ten bucks or what, Jaeger?”

“Fuck you, horse-face!” He growled almost instantly. (Holy fuck it was hilarious to watch him go from a fucking hyena and into a bull in a matter of a split second. I think he just made a new fucking record for himself.) Of course, I didn’t miss the curious looks from everyone else sitting around the small table. Hey, you can’t fucking blame me! (This was payback for teasing the shits out of me for liking a sheepshagger.) Even though the shit-stain was straight as a fucking pole, (a seriously fucking suspicious pole, that is) I wanted that ten bucks, even if I had to push for it.

 

-

 

Eventually we all separated and got ready for the dinner at five-thirty. Levi had excused himself earlier than any of us though. He had said something about taking a shit so he could have an empty stomach for all the food or whatever. And the shit-stain was the only one who had howled with laughter while everyone else (including fucking me) were confused as hell. Fuck, I still couldn’t get used to the agro man’s toilet humour.

Choosing the right shirt was a fucking pain though, especially knowing whatever I wore was probably going to get fucking wet later on, unless we came back to get changed. I tried my best and decided on a white dress shirt. It would only help me in a good way once it was wet.

Of course, Armin went all fucking out again as usual. He even decided on wearing that black vest of his that he’s only worn once so far. And even worse, he took that fucking camera with him to dinner, since none of us wanted to go back to the cabin. Mikasa wasn’t far behind him on the filming department either. God. People and their fucking cameras. It was just a fucking coastline. It was not going to be magical or some shit.

Dinner went as planned. I mean, how could it not? The best fucking part of it was seeing Marco. And as Sasha had said before, he still looked like a fucking lobster. At least the glowing redness had gone down a little, but I could see he was still stiff as fuck under his clothes. (He was wearing a fucking light blue dress shirt and holy damn. What a fucking _beaut_. But, why the fuck did he have so many coloured shirts? Honestly, he wore the pink and red way fucking better.) Even his arms were fucking glowing once I noticed them.

And every time he caught me staring, he’d at first look downwards towards his food. Only on the latter half of the dinner he’d just give me his iconic fucking brilliant smile, which I had to smile back for. But unluckily for fucking me, I got taunted every time by the agro-man who was still for some fucking reason sat across from me. If he really had such a fucking problem with it, why didn’t he sit somewhere else?   

Somehow we ended dinner in record fucking time. There was some strange mutual agreement going on with Marco’s group and somehow we met out at the front of the restaurant at six. Hanji excused herself to get her, as she stated, ‘baby’ (whatever the hell that was) while Erwin made sure we all had bought access to the secluded area. (Not that he had to, as it was pretty fucking obvious by now that we’ve seen each other in the area.) And only after headed for the stairs did I finally start talking to Marco.

“G’day Marco,” I greeted.

“Good evening Jean,” he chuckled, trying hard to walk next to me as we headed up the stairs.

“You’re looking red as fucking ever,” I noted, tilting my head towards him. Obviously it was a bad fucking idea. I nearly fucking tripped on the steps. Oh god.

“Oh shush. It still really hurts, aye,” he replied. I was going to carry on teasing him but was distracted when I heard a fucking snort from none other than the shit-stain who was behind us. All I did was throw him the fuck finger behind my back as we reached Deck 10.

The walk down the seriously fucking short hallway (since we were already at the end of the fucking ship) was pretty quiet. And I was surprised to have spotted something that I think I probably wasn’t meant to. But fuck, I’m glad I did. I nearly fucking smirked when I saw the two blonds joining hands as they walked in front of me. Erwin had to walk a bit ahead since it wasn’t possible to walk in twos in these fucking tiny, trippy hallways. Obviously I wasn’t the only who noticed because Marco had slightly bumped his shoulder with mine (I swear he fucking winced. Did he seriously fucking forget he was sunburnt?) with a chuckle towards the two in front. And all I could do was grin like a fucking idiot. It had been a long as fucking time since I’ve seen Armin affectionate as that. Holy fuck. And strangely enough I found my own heartbeat fasten at the sight. The thought of pulling whatever charms I could tonight on Marco was still fresh in my mind and I couldn’t help but feel so fucking nervous and yet excited for it.

The secluded area was a fucking shocker when we got there. All the deck chairs except for a single row were fucking gone and instead a bunch of tables and chairs were placed everywhere with people sitting around them. (Heck, there were people even standing on one side as they watched the ship sail by the coastline.)

I didn’t fucking care though, because the thing is... It was fucking... _Holy damn_. (Shut up! Don’t blame me for not being able to describe it!) I had never even fucking seen anything liked it. There were little lights at each table that glowed against the brightly coloured sky. Oranges and reds filled fucking everything and only then did I realise that the clouds had given away for just a short amount of time. (Holy fuck, I swear, I still have my manhood attached. Just let fucking try to describe this shit, okay!?)

You know how I said there was nothing magical about seeing a coastline? Well. Fuck that. It was actually fucking.... dare I say it, _beautiful_. And as I gazed up at the sky, I was suddenly fucking pulled in a different direction.

“Jean!!! Take a picture of me with the coastline! Quick!” Armin exclaimed, pulling me to the one side of the ship where you could see the coastline.

And holy fuck. Only then did I realise why it was so fucking orange and red and _holy fuck_. The coast’s rocks were coloured almost the same as the sky. The only thing that stood out was the green grass and the dark blue waters. (That was somehow fucking reflecting the tinge of the sky.) We were so fucking close to the edge of Australia that all I could do was fucking stare, gobsmacked. Holy fuck it looked so big and whoa.

I was too much of a fucking awe to even take a photo until Armin encouraged me again. Fuck, I didn’t just take one photo like usual. I took fucking heaps.

“Eren! Mikasa! You guys too!” Armin called. And within a blink of an eye the other two were in shot with him. I felt rather than saw Marco standing next to me while I was snapping away. Fuck, he even had his own camera in hand. How did I not fucking notice it before!?

“Mikasa, take one of Jean and I!” Armin leaped into me and almost ripping the fucking heavy as camera out of my hands. Holy fuck. I didn’t know what was more amazing; Armin’s actual fucking freak out or the fucking scenery behind him. It was all just so fucking surreal.

I ended up getting a photo with him. I had wrapped my arm around his shoulder and he did the same. And honestly, it was one of the best fucking pictures of us two together within the whole trip.

“I’ll take a picture too, why don’t you join them Mikasa?” Marco interrupted. And only then did I notice Marco’s mates standing next to him. I had no idea where Erwin, Levi and Mike were, but fuck! That didn’t matter. Somehow we spent I don’t even know how fucking long taking turns. Armin even opted to take photos of Marco and his mates.  I’m just so fucking amazed that no one even gave us death glares as we all freaked out. (And maybe we were a lot saner than I thought I we were.)

Well, that was until we heard a fucking squeal and a bark of laughter. The squeal was obviously Hanji’s. God. You could hear that fucking woman miles away. (And holy fuck. That camera. No wonder she called it a fucking baby. Shit! It was huge!) And the laughter was surprisingly from Connie. (Who had his hands full of plates) Sasha was walking behind him and holding so many fucking plates too.

“We brought cheese and crackers,” Connie announced, holding out the plates towards us. None of us could even fucking say anything. I don’t know whether it was because, holy hell, why did Connie bring like six fucking plates, or because.... You know what. Why?

“Sweet as, bro!” Reiner’s laugh was what brought all of us out of fucking shock.

“It’s so pretty!” Hanji squealed again, shoving her way towards the railing. Of course, this screwed up our perfect photo moment. And I’m sure as hell Armin was actually about to fucking complain but was stopped when Erwin’s throaty laughter filled the air.

“Let’s have a toast first,” he announced, nodding his head towards a table.

Surprisingly enough it had a ‘reserved’ sign on it, just like majority of the other tables had. Leave it to the fucking blond-stud to organise a giant as table for all of us to sit at. Connie and Sasha placed down the plates quickly and found their seats. Everyone else followed and I decided to go for a corner seat. Marco sat next to me on the right (and on the end so he could see the scenery when he looked forward) while Armin took my left. Reiner sat opposite of me, which I was fucking glad for. Bertl who sat next to him was surprisingly quiet and still, as fucking always, staring at me suspiciously. And only after taking a seat did I notice how fucking humid it still was outside. Fuck! At least the foam party later on in the evening would wash away whatever I sweated.

“What are we toasting for, Erwin?” Hanji asked curiously once we were all seated with full glasses of red wine. (Oh fuck. Not more fucking wine. I swear, if I have another glass I’d be fucking tipsy as hell.) Well, at least that fucking explained why the three of them had disappeared.

“Sir, would you like a photo first?” That familiar bartender interrupted. Oluo or whatever his fucking name was. Of course Erwin agreed and we went through so many fucking cameras. And only after the little scene did Erwin stand again.

“Let’s make a toast for meeting new acquaintances. And, for sharing this magical experience together,” he toasted, holding up his own wine glass.

“Cheers!” We all sang, clinking our glasses with whoever was the closest.

And I swear, it wasn’t even a fucking minute before Armin had gulped down his whole fucking glass (holy fuck, Armin) before he was out of his seat and glued back onto the railing. Hanji joined him on his left side almost immediately. Even after she got a snarky comment from Levi. He said something about her camera being able to poke someone’s eye out or some shit.

Connie and Sasha scooted over and took Armin and Erwin’s seat to start chatting to Reiner and Bertl. I ignored them for the most part and placed my concentration back on Marco who was staring out above him. The view I got of his neck was so fucking hot that I even had to gulp away the drool that was forming in my mouth. Holy fuck Marco. Even when he’s red as a fucking tomato, he was still hot.

“What did you get up to today?” I asked, taking a slow sip of my wine. (I didn’t take a big gulp like almost everyone else. Including Marco. Instead, I wanted to savour it so I didn’t have to buy more fucking drinks and past the point of tipsy.)

“Hm?” Marco shot his head down to look at me. “Not too much, it was a really quiet day for me, aye.”

“How so?” I pushed on, resting my elbow onto the wooden table and placing my chin on it.

“Oh. Well, Annie and I went into the steam room this morning, which was nice,” he started. I could tell he was a little on edge than he normally was, only because he seemed to have trouble with keeping eye contact with me. Why the fuck though? Was he avoiding something about me or what?

“In a sauna with sunburn? Is that a good idea?” I retorted, giving him a curious look. He just laughed, rubbing his hair sheepishly with his hand.

“That’s what I said,” Reiner interrupted. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes towards him. I was met with a fucking arched brow as he eyed me. And I sure we hell could see it all over his fucking face. He knew. He fucking knew I was trying to chat Marco up. What was he going to do about it though?

“The worker said it was fine,” Marco countered, grabbing my attention. Of course when I faced him again he wasn’t looking at me, but rather at Reiner. And to be fucking honest, I couldn’t exactly read what kind of expression he wore.

“Is that all?”

“Ah, no. Reiner, Bertl and I learnt how to DJ in one of the bars. It was really fun,” he finally turned to look at me. And for the first time all fucking night our eyes met. And I was only then reminded of how fucking beaut his eyes were. And how hot his square face was and those dark freckles on his cheeks and the red glow behind him and- Fuck. I sound like a fucking love-sick fool.

Obviously I had stared too long as I noticed him squirming in his seat. He cleared his throat and asked, “What did you get up to?”

“Armin and I were fucking lazy. We were here all day and then saw Finding Nemo,” I answered nonchalantly, finally sitting up straight again to take a sip of my wine.

“Annie said something about that,” Marco nodded.

“Too bad we had to miss it. It would’ve been awesome, aye?” Reiner interjected again. And as if interrupting wasn’t fucking enough. He also for some fucking reason slapped Marco’s back. And I sure as fucking hell did notice the wince this time.

“Seeing it on in the theatre was ace!” Connie chirped. Marco and I fell silent as we listened in their fucking eccentric conversation about Dory or some shit.

“I’ll be back,” Marco excused himself a little while later. I just grunted a reply while the others seemed to have not fucking heard. And honestly, I was so glad. This gave me the best fucking opportunity to get a pervy look at Marco. God. How the fuck did he wear those jeans so well? How!? God... that ass of his was fucking drool-worthy.

And unlucky for me, as fucking always, I didn’t realise what the shit-stain was planning. And before I knew he was had grabbed onto my fucking shoulders (and not gently, might I add. Fuck! His grasp was so fucking tight that it hurt) while standing behind me. He leaned down towards my ear and... That fucking wanker. Fuck him. Just. Fuck everything about him.

“Baaa,” he whispered. And this time I wasn’t having any fucking of it. No way in hell. Not this fucking time. I grabbed hold of his neck which earned me a yelp. A seriously fucking high yelp. And before I could even fucking blink, I was shoved backwards. The wheeze that came out of my mouth when I hit the fucking deck was enough to make me sound like a fucking old man or some shit. Holy hell did it fucking hurt!

“Shame!” Eren laughed, walking away. Was this my fucking punishment for bringing up the ten bucks thing!? Was it, Karma!? You fucking bitch!

“Fuck you, Jaeger!” I snapped. This earned me a couple of looks from people around me. (Even all of my mates, god!)

“No way, man. I don’t do horses,” he snorted, joining Hanji, Erwin and Armin (and a bunch of other fucking people) by the railing.

“Bro, you have the best comebacks ever! Such a leged!” Reiner called back. It earned him a fist pump from the shit-stain. God! They just loved to fucking annoying me, didn’t they!?

I just growled, picking myself up from the floor. I fixed the seat and rubbed my head soothingly. Amazingly I didn’t fucking injure myself on the fucking wood. I hurriedly grabbed my glass and decided it was time to join Armin. Of course I didn’t miss Erwin standing next to him with his arm wrapped around the blondie’s waist. God. They were such fucking show offs.

I had bumped Armin’s right shoulder when I joined them. All I got was a chuckle and a beeping of a camera. Not that I could fucking blame him. The view of the coastline was still fucking amazing even though the orangey hues were becoming darker.

I took a thoughtful sip of my wine and rested my arms against the railing before I heard someone joining me.

“He really gets under your skin, aye?” Marco asked. Oh, thank fucking god it was Marco. I just grunted a reply and gave him a look over. It seemed he went to the mini bar to get another drink. And by the looks of it, it was one hell of a fucking good drink. It looked like there was chocolate syrup on the glass.

“That thing looks like a smoothie,” I noted.

“It does, doesn’t it? It tastes like chocolate and hazelnut,” he chuckled. He took a long sip and I couldn’t help but wonder how good it tasted. The way he was eagerly sucking it up fucking mesmerised me. Of course, my eyes were trained on his lips and slowly lowered to his neck and... No. Not yet. I had to control myself for a little while longer.

“Aren’t your teeth gonna’ go rotten from all the sweet shit you drink?” I questioned, taking another sip of the disgusting fucking wine. God, I was so tempted to tip it into the fucking ocean. (I’m pretty sure Hanji would have pushed me over board if I did.)

 “What? No, I don’t think so,” he scrunched up his nose. It was so fucking cute. Like I was actually getting used to that little habit of his. Oh lord. I was so fucking deep, wasn’t I?

“Are you sure about that, Marco?” I teased.

“Jean, I’m becoming a doctor, not a dentist,” he blurted out quickly. I couldn’t help but actually fucking laugh at his quick reply. Doctor Marco. God... That sounded so fucking hot. And it was probably not the best time for me to have those fucking thoughts as we stood next to each other. But oh fucking well.

We fell into a comfortable silence after that. I idly moved my half full wine glass in hand over the edge, watching as we sailed past the darkening coastline. And surprisingly enough more clouds had formed in the sky. (Or, just... you know... we sailed into fucking clouds. Cause I highly doubt clouds could move that fucking fast.) I saw in the corner of my eye the clock read around twenty past six or some shit. So, it wasn’t long to go until it would be completely dark.

“.... Want to try some?” He murmured softly. And I swear if I wasn’t listening as intently as I was, I would have fucking missed it. Thank fucking god I didn’t. Because holy fuck. It caught me off guard and all I could d in return was fucking stare at him in shock. Did... Did Marco just ask me to fucking try his drink? What? From his straw!? Was he serious!? Did sheepshaggers always share fucking drinks or what!?

He quickly shook his head as I stared gobsmacked at him. (I think at this point my mouth was fucking open or some shit. I don’t even know!)

“Uhh... I-I mean,” he stuttered, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn he was blushing under that sunburn of his.

“Okay,” I replied. There was a long pause between us as I held his gaze. And I couldn’t even fucking believe it. Here we were, standing in the fucking sunset and staring at each other. (Oh good lord that sounded so fucking sappy. But it was the best fucking opportunity to let my charms loose. And yet, here I was, not doing fucking anything. In fact, he was the one to fucking break my stride again)

I was just still so fucking gobsmacked that he had asked me to try his fucking drink. Was... he suggesting a fucking indirect kiss!? And somehow for the second time that evening I felt my heart beat quicken in my chest. Fuck, even my hands were going sweaty. Holy fuck.

I ended up leaning over and taking a sip from the straw as seductively as I could, trying not to lose eye contact. (Would I sound too big of a perve to say I fucking enjoyed knowing he had sucked on it less than a couple minutes ago? Like so much that I almost cracked a fat?)  He was holding out the glass for me and holy damn. Holy fucking damn. It was so fucking good but I didn’t fucking care. All I cared about was how we never broke eye contact, (I had no idea what kind of expression he wore cause all I saw was those light brown eyes) even when I felt my face going red and hot and _fuck_. Oh fuck. (Never mind, it seemed I was fucking turned on as hell at that point.)

“It’s good, aye?” He chuckled once I shot back up. (He sounded strangely croaky if you asked me.) But, hell fucking yeah it was good. And it was everything that he obviously liked. (Minus the pineapple of course)

“It does taste like a smoothie. Fuck, I might even get one too,” I sent him my most charming smile when our eyes met again. And this time I got another smile from him. But it was so fucking different than all the other time. This time he was biting his bottom lip and holy fuck. If his iconic smiles were fucking dorky and cute, this one was by fucking far hot and so seductive. Shit. Did he even fucking know what he was doing to me!? Was this normal fucking behaviour for straight sheepshaggers?

“Eeeeh!!! Look! Whales!!! Oh-my-gosh,” Hanji squealed. I shot my head immediately towards her and then outwards to the sea, scanning the area for a whale. And true to her fucking words, there was one. Holy fuck! And almost instantly Marco shoved his drink into my free hand as he began taking a million photos. (It seemed he had a lot more fucking in common with Armin when it came to cameras than I thought at first. Fuck. I was doomed, wasn’t I?)

“Jesus Christ. Calm the fuck down, woman,” Levi scoffed. And only then did I realise that almost everyone was standing by the railings, but on the other side. (And holy shit. Bertl had his arms wrapped around Reiner’s shoulders while standing behind him. Good lord. I haven’t seen such a sight in fucking ages. It looked so fucking weird) It seemed like everyone got the memo that I wanted alone time with Marco and didn’t join our side. Thank fucking god. Although, there were strangers standing next to Marco instead, which probably explained why. But oh well. I’d like to just fucking pretend that they got the memo.

“Armin! Look! Whales!” Hanji completely fucking ignored him. Holy hell. Good on you, crazy woman!

“They’re pretty amazing,” Armin sighed, holding his camera tightly as he stared out. I faintly noticed how he leaned against the blond-stud’s shoulder in the corner of my eye. God. He was being so fucking affectionate tonight. Heck, everyone seemed to be. What the fuck was even going on? Was the scenery and wine finally getting to everyone?

“Don’t you see enough whales as it is?” Levi asked loudly enough for all of us to hear.

“No, never. I rarely see whales. You should know that by now, Levi,” she quickly replied, taking another picture as the whale came up.

“Where do you work?” I asked, hoping it was loud enough for her to hear over the quiet murmurs of the passengers in the area.

“Northern part of Queensland mostly.”

“Hah, so none of you live in the first state?” I questioned. I swear, Armin immediately froze next to me. Obviously he hadn’t asked this before if he reacted like that. What the fuck? Has he seriously not yet asked Erwin where he lived? Did he seriously not think about what would happen when all of us got off the ship? It almost seemed out of fucking character for him.

“Mike and I do,” Erwin answered. “And at times Levi does,” he quickly added. I didn’t even want to fucking know where the agro man lived. Who the hell cared about him?

“What kind of work do you do, Erwin? Are you a marine biologist too?” Marco asked, leaning a bit forward over the railing to catch Erwin’s attention. He was actually right up against me. Fuck. Screw that, he was leaning against me. Even our fucking hips had touched. Holy hell.

The blond-stud chuckled and shook his head. “No, although the ocean is very interesting, it’s not anything close to what we do.”

“They’re a bunch of lazy old men. They’re lawyers and Erwin runs the company, simple as that,” Hanji interrupted.

“You own a company? Holy fuck,” I blurted out. No wonder this guy was fucking loaded. Heck, no wonder they were all fucking rich.  

“It’s only small. Fairly recent, actually,” the blond-stud’s throaty laugh filled the air. “It’s only been two years.”

“That’s two years that I’ve been out of Sydney,” Hanji quipped. Well, lucky for fucking Armin then. At least he could still fucking hang out with his ship fling if he was going to hold him that tightly. As for me... It seemed I wasn’t as lucky.

“That’s really cool,” Marco mumbled, leaning back again. And instead of moving aside so there could be a gap between us, he didn’t move at all. Not only was I fucking confused as hell by the decision, I was also shockingly happy. Like so fucking happy that I thought I was finally making some great fucking pointers. And even when he did move a little to the side, I followed almost instantly, wanting so fucking badly for our shoulders to constantly touch.

We stayed like that for a while as he spoke of his relations to Sydney, lawyers and marine shit. To be fucking honest, I wasn’t even really listening. It was fucking rude of me, but who the hell even cared? All I could concentrate was the warmth next to me; the way his hot arm brushed against mine every few minutes (oh lord. The difference I spotted between us crashed me like a fucking wave every time. Even though he was so fucking red, I could still clearly see the darker freckles under his dark arm hair) and how the rub of our shoulders made me legs fucking jelly. I was so fucking into it; all I did was reply hums and sipped whatever wine I had left. Eventually I did most of the talking after he found a point to end.

How the fuck did the freckled boy not realise what he was doing to me? Was it fucking normal for sheepshaggers to be this close? Or was this just a _Marco_ thing? I mean hell; I shouldn’t have been questioning it. I should have been celebrating and taking it to the next step. And yet, I somehow fucking couldn’t go all out. It wasn’t that like I was a coward or some shit, it was more like I wanted preserve whatever we had. It was the perfect timing to make a move. Just fucking anything.

I don’t even know how I somehow just ended up running the back of my hand over his warm forearm (fuck, even the thought of it had given my fucking shivers when it first came to mind. It was so fucking weird because I hadn’t felt like this since the first time I went for Armin.) I barely even got a fucking reaction from him which had disappointed me the fucking most. And in the end, all I could do was stand there and listen to my heart beating in my ears. Fuck! What was I even going to fucking do with myself!? Why couldn’t I push myself to do more with him? Was I really that disappointed by his reaction? I mean, he hadn’t pulled away or anything. Maybe he had just thought it was an accident or some shit.

 

-

 

Rest of the evening was spent watching the sunset and the coastline slowly growing darker. Soon enough it was almost completely dark and already past seven. (And still fucking humid as hell, even though the sky had ended up being covered in dark clouds) Armin was the first to ask to take a seat again and everyone else followed afterwards.

And honestly, I fucking enjoyed the evening so almost too much. I ended up ordering the same drink as Marco and it somehow seemed to have made me giddy as fuck. And I figured with all the giggling and shit he was doing too, he was probably giddy himself. (Oh lord, the looks he was giving me reminded me of our drunken night) The cheese and crackers was a fucking hit too. Oh lord, they went well with creamy cocktails.

And the best part was I could fully concentrate on Marco. Everyone else had formed small groups with conversations and seemed to avoid coming near Marco and me. (It looked like they got the fucking memo after all.) I sure as hell was fucking celebrating though.

And I could not, I swear to fucking god, take my eyes off Marco. The way the fake fire lights from the table glowed on his red skin was the biggest fucking turn on. And I don’t fucking regret the fact that I cracked a fat almost the whole fucking time. It only got fucking worse when I sat closer to him so I could bump his knees every so often. And this time, I did get a reaction. It was so fucking subtle that if I wasn’t watching him like a fucking hawk, I would have missed it. I knew he was probably blushing every time. (Hell, even his eyes seemed to falter and glaze over every now and then) I mean, how could I fucking not know? It seemed my touchy moves were finally fucking working on him. Hell yeah!

At some point I had gotten a bump on the shoulder from Armin which interrupted the conversation we were having. Marco, as it turned out, to be chatty as a fucking hell once you got him on a roll. We somehow went from talking about sights in Australia to sights in New Zealand. Hell, he even promised to show me around his city once we ported there. I just hoped to god he would keep that fucking promise once I was done seducing him.

Anyway, the bump reminded me of the plan I had tonight. And when I squinted at my watch in the dark, I realised it was heading for nine already. Fuck! The foam party was going to begin soon. Thank fucking god for Armin. Holy shit. What would I do without the blondie?

“So... Marco. There’s this foam party at nine on Deck 12,” I interrupted him before he could begin talking again.

“Oh yes! I heard about that,” he chuckled, sipping the last of his drink.

“Wanna’ check it out?” I quirked my brow, sending him a sideways grin.

“Hell yeah!!! It sounds mean as,” Reiner interjected, (what the fuck did he just say? Was that sheepshagger talk?) wrapping an arm around Marco’s shoulder. Shit! I hadn’t even seen him heading in our direction. Holy fuck! What a fucking sneaky bloke.

“Reiner’s got the idea! Let’s go!” Connie exclaimed, immediately hopping next to Reiner with his arm fucking glued to Sasha’s waist. She even fucking yelped as she was pulled along.

Marco ended up chuckling and standing after the encouragement. “Can I just take my camera back first?”

“Sure,” I answered.

Everyone except for the shit-stain, Levi, Hanji and Mike had followed us. And the fact that the shit-stain didn’t tag along (what a fucking surprise. He normally fucking loves foam parties) made me suspicious as hell. And I was going to call out for ten bucks again, but decided to leave it be when the crowd of everyone had shoved me through the door.

“I think I might get changed into something more suitable first as well,” Marco stated as we walked down the hallways.

“Let’s meet at the lobby in five,” Connie planned once he heard Marco.

In some ways I was thankful. At least this meant I could wear the fucking dress shirt again at some point during the next week. While on the other hand, now I wouldn’t be able to see Marco wet with that tight fucking dress shirt of his. God fucking damn it.

Mikasa joined us after we got changed (I ended up wearing what I wore earlier on today and so did Armin) and threw her spare clothes onto Armin’s bed. She explained that she’d prefer to sleep with the sane blokes than the rabbits tonight. And honestly, the way match made in heaven were fucking glued to each other, I sure as hell didn’t blame her. I’m sure we all knew what they’d get up to after the party.

When we had met by the stairs I was surprised to see everyone else seemed to have the same fucking idea. I guess there was no fucking escape from bathers tonight. And almost instantly once we were gathered, we headed up stairs.

And holy fuck. Oh fucking god. Shit! Now there was definitely a fucking huge party on Deck 12 tonight. It was even more fucking crowded than the techno night. Holy fucking shit! The flashing lights and pumping of the music seemed to hit me almost fucking instantly as my ‘party’ mode was flicked on within just a couple of seconds.

“Yaaaay!” Sasha screamed, fisting the air. “Let’s go Con!”

They were the first to dive straight into the fucking crowd of jumping people. Reiner and Bertl went off to some other location while Mikasa and Annie headed straight for the bar. I figured as much that they wouldn’t want to fucking dance.

“Shall we go?” The blond-stud asked over the fucking piercing music. And it fucking surprised me that he was even into this shit. I seriously thought he’d have guided Armin straight to the bar with Annie and Mikasa, but apparently not. It seemed he still had a bit of fucking life in him for an old man.

And without thinking of it too much, I grabbed hold of Marco’s wrist (thank god I actually fucking didn’t miss this time) and followed the two blonds into a small clearing in the crowd. And holy fuck was it intense. People were fucking rubbing against each other as they all drunkenly danced to some kind of music. Holy shit. What bunch of fucking drunken dipshits. The foam wasn’t even fucking out yet and they were already going crazy. Shit.

Soon enough we were dancing with the crowd too. (Well, if you considered jumping as fucking dancing) I was just so fucking gobsmacked that we didn’t fall over. Even though we’ve been on the ship for so many fucking days, the rocking was still there and shit, how did we not fucking fall over?

“Welcome to the Wings of Freedom foam party!” A man greeted over the speaker. “Are you all ready to party!?”

Everyone cheered (including fucking me and oh shit, even Marco) as we watched the man walk by the railings of Deck 14. I immediately shot my head to Marco to check if he was okay and he seemed fine enough as he beamed me that iconic smile of his.

“Then let’s get the party started! I’ll be your host tonight. Dita Ness is the name!” He called out. A few people whistled and cheered out nicknames to the man. I had to admit, it was one hell of a fucking weird name. People were still even yelling when he explained what was going to happen.

 “On the count of three!”

“If we separate, I’ll see you later at the bar,” Armin shouted into my ear. I just nodded quickly. It was bound to happen. I’m sure as fucking hell that the blond-stud wouldn’t last that long here. I turned back to Marco, flashing him a thumbs up. He just laughed over the music and ran a hand over his sweaty forehead. God. I knew how he fucking felt. The humidity and heat of the crowd was a fucking killer. Water and foam would be a fucking dream come true.

People began chanting the countdown and before I could even fucking blink foam was being shot through these weird as tubes from Deck 14.

“Oh my god!” Marco yelled as he covered his eyes as the foam that landed all over us. Almost fucking instantly I grabbed hold of his shirt, hoping to god we don’t separate in the mass. I couldn’t help but laugh as suddenly everything became a blur of people screaming and jumping. Foam was getting into my eyes and fuck it. It was so much fucking fun. The flashing lights and pumping of the music only urged me on.

The deck had somehow gotten slippery as fuck from the mass of foam, but that didn’t stop us. And the foam that had stuck to Marco’s hair only made it that much more fucking hilarious as he pumped his fists into the air in time to the beat.

“This is so much fun!” Marco cheered, shaking his head. It almost (okay scratch that, it fucking did) reminded me of the night down at our bar. He was pulling the same fucking moves and all I could do was cheer with him.

“Fuck yeah!” I yelled over the music. Oh fuck, I knew already at that point my voice was going to be nonexistent the following day.

At some point we spotted Sasha and Connie grinding the shit out of each other. (Not that I was fucking surprised or anything, because we all knew that was coming) I did take note, as we moved along with the crowd, that Armin and Erwin had joined Mikasa and Annie at the bar sometime, but I didn’t really fucking care that much. All I did care about was Marco. And how he fucking danced and how the soap suds were slowly melting away into his wet hair. And how his hips moved and oh lord.

Every so slowly the gap between us grew smaller and before I knew it I was fucking right up against him. I thought he’d pull away like he had in the past. (Actually I was fucking excepting him to leap and shove a couple of people again) But instead I was left fucking gobsmacked as he stayed close. A couple of times our chest smashed into each other as we jumped and all we did was laugh like fucking dorks. Because honest to fucking god, that’s what we were at that moment and somehow I knew I was the bigger one.

I had a plan. The plan ran in my mind constantly as we jumped and did some kind of fucking dancing. And yet I didn’t know where to begin. How could I pull it off? How could I just somehow lean into him and kiss him? Maybe Armin was right. This wasn’t like high school parties. I wasn’t drunk as shit like I always was back then. And maybe I just wasn’t in it for a lay. Did that mean I respected Marco more than I thought at first? Fuck!

And so I did whatever I could. I ran my hands along his hot and sweaty arms. I aimed my hips for his whenever he came close. Fuck, I even tried grabbing his hips. But it was so fucking pointless, I think? All he did was carry on laughing and shoot his head back. Was he this fucking clueless? Or was he just ignoring it? Why!? Why, Marco!?

I carried on with the routine as we danced. And even when a couple of water drops started falling on top of us, we still danced with the crowd. And soon, without even fucking caring, it started to drizzle.

“It’s raining!!! Woohoo!” Someone beside me had shouted. They were so eccentric that they fucking shoved me straight into Marco. He almost instantly grabbed hold of my shoulders as our chests slammed together.

“Ah, fucking dipshit!” I yelled out, my head immediately shooting towards the person. But, the light shaking at my shoulders was enough to stop me from shoving the person back. Instead I looked back towards Marco again who was doing the shaking.

And that’s when I just knew something was up. There was just something so fucking different about him. The smile he held was something so fucking different than what I’ve seen so far in the past six days. It almost reminded me of the way he had bitten his lip earlier on that evening. And instead of letting go of my shoulders, he just shakily (he was still fucking shaking. Holy fuck) moved them behind my shoulder pads. I sent him the best charming smile I could as my hands almost instantly flew towards his hips. He didn’t even fucking protest. Fuck, he didn’t even jump! Holy fucking shit.

Did he _finally_ get it? Did my hip thrusts and seductive touching finally make it through to that dorky fucking head of his? It sure as hell must have because before I knew it, we were dancing again. But our hands didn’t leave the spots at fucking all. And again, each time I was reminded of the slight height advantage he had on me.

My heart was pounding so fucking fast because I knew, this was my fucking chance. All I had to do now was lean in and kiss him. Somehow, he wasn’t fucking grossed out by whatever has gone down so far. Maybe he was just okay with being touchy? I don’t even fucking know. But the way he looked at me was what urged me on even more. I hadn’t seen that expression before on his face. And again, it almost reminded me of the smirk he had given me when we got drunk, but somehow it was so fucking different.

He stopped jumping at some point and before I even knew it (holy fucking shit. How the hell did it end up like this!?) he was leaning into me. But instead, he went past my cheeks and straight to my ear. I honestly thought he was going to ask to leave or say something that I didn’t fucking want to hear. And yet... There was nothing. _Nothing at fucking all_. That could have prepared me for what he did say.

“Kiss me,” he breathed. I was so fucking gobsmacked that I wasn’t too sure if he was asking what he really just said or if I had fucking imagined it. Because there was no fucking way. He was straight. I’m sure. I’m one-hundred-percent fucking sure. He’s given me no fucking leads. All he’s done was blush like a fucking dip- _Oh._

“What!?” I yelled over the music. I had to double check. I had to be certain. And before I even realised it, he grabbed hold of either side of my face and leant in closer again.

“Kiss me, _please_ ” he whispered, retreating and standing straight again, but never moving his hands off my cheeks. The chill it sent through my fucking body was... un fucking real. (Holy damn had it been a long time) And holy fucking shit. It felt like my whole fucking world came to a stop and all I could feel and hear was my heartbeat and the sudden clamminess in my palms and... holy fuck! Did Marco Bott just tell me to kiss him!? To kiss the sheepshagger, giggly and blushing Marco Bott!?

To fucking _kiss_ him. Was he even fucking real!?

At that point I didn’t even double take and question why. (Why the fuck would I!? I have been so fucking eager to get to this point for so fucking long. Why would I question it when I finally got it?) The way he was staring at me was enough to know that he was being fucking serious.

And before I even knew it, I found myself leaning in and pressing my lips against his in a gentle kiss. Our lips even barely fucking touched. And I thought at first maybe this would be best, in case he’d instantly back off as soon as he realised I thought he was serious. But hell fucking no. By some fucking miracle he held onto my face even tighter when I tried to pull away. Instead I was met with another kiss, this time by his own doing.

Our lips melted together and it was fucking perfect. They were everything they looked to be. Soft, plump and oh so fucking _timid_. It was like he wasn’t sure and I just couldn’t help but deepen the kiss, showing him there was nothing to be afraid of. There was seriously nothing fucking wrong with kissing a _gay_ guy he met on a cruise. There was nothing wrong with _experimenting,_ especially with me. Hell, I’ve been fucking hell bent on making him gay as it was. This only made things a hell of a lot easier.

And I was so fucking glad. Eventually my hands found the way to his face too and straight into his soft, wet hair. (Oh good lord it was so fucking soft and smooth and _holy damn_ ) Not once did either one of us pull away as we continued to leave slow kisses against each other’s lips as the booming music and drunken idiots surrounded us.

And that, my dear readers, was how I kissed Marco Bott for the first time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it took 100k words and six days (or twelve. But Jean only met Marco on day six) to finally get here. Wow. What a journey it’s been so far! We’re nearly half way done with the story! 
> 
> Originally I had planned for them to get at this stage only on day fourteen. But once I began researching Kimberley Coast, I knew I should move it up and make use of the great scenery!
> 
> I love making Eren be a little shit towards Jean. Did everyone enjoy is sheep baaing? Every time I typed it I thought of “baa ram ewe/you” from Babe! I was going to throw in a joke during their dinner time but decided to leave it out! Maybe I’ll add it in the next chapter!
> 
> Other than that, I don’t really have much to say this time round! Again, please google Kimberley Coast. It looks absolutely amazing! And the sunsets are really gorgeous! 
> 
> Thank you to thegreatyurio and for-the-love-of-ereri for being my beta readers!!!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> I’m sure everyone is starting to get used to most of the slang being used! 
> 
> I love getting Reiner to be an ultimate kiwi! Haha. “Sweet as” is a common phrase and like the previous chapter, “bro” is a word that is often used for friends.
> 
> Be-jay – blowjob  
> Pissed – drunk. Not to be confused with ‘pissed off.’  
> First State – slogan/nickname for New South Wales  
> Bathers – swimming outfit. Could be bikinis, board shorts or technically anything to swim in  
> Legend – cool...? Someone cool  
> Mean as – good as


	10. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very much for the kudos, bookmarks, hits and comments! I never expected that I’d get 100 kudos! It makes me so happy! I’m really glad that there are people who are enjoying the story!
> 
> They’re at sea during this chapter! Next port in the following chapter will be at Lombok, Indonesia! It’s the one ports that isn’t related to Australia or New Zealand. But, the schedule I’m following ports there, so I might as well make use of it! 
> 
> But before we even go there, they have another day at sea! Hopefully this chapter will explain things that Jean obviously had totally missed up on! I’ll apologise in advanced if this chapter is a little boring and not exactly all that good!
> 
> There’s not much else to add, so!  
> As usual, to all of those who are still on board, sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise.

_Day 13  
_ _In which Jean Kirstein learns more about Marco Bott_

* * *

 

For once I woke up without the need of an alarm clock or anyone else. Instead, I somehow fucking woke up by myself. I realised that was the only one who was awake when I heard the shit-stain’s snore above me. And when I had turned my head towards Armin’s bed, I had spotted Mikasa still sleeping away. Armin was up in Connie’s bunk instead. (Not that I could blame Mikasa for forcing the blondie up there the previous night. I wouldn’t want to sleep in Connie’s bed either, even if our sheets were changed fucking daily.)

I was only left fucking disappointed (and mad) when I saw the clock read nine in the morning. Fuck. Somehow I woke up an hour earlier than what we had planned. Only good thing about it was that it allowed me to think about Marco.

The previous night was... _fuck_. How could I even describe it without sounding like a fucking sap? After Marco and I had spent god knows how fucking long kissing, (it wasn’t anything too out there. I didn’t want to push him (and it took every fucking muscle of self control I had to not go further) and even though we were at it for so fucking long, he was still timid as hell) we decided to join the two blonds and chicks at the bar.

And almost instantly I had noticed a change in Marco. And honest to fucking god, it wasn’t a change I was hoping for. Instead, he went so fucking quiet. I mean, he was still smiling and having a great time with us, but he hardly even fucking said a word. And every time our eyes had met, he’d instantly look away. My only guess was that he was embarrassed as hell. And I was just fucking praying that he didn’t regret it. Obviously it was so out of fucking character that even Annie had asked him if he was okay.

I don’t even know what time we left. The last time I had looked at my watch it was already past twelve. Annie and Marco were the first ones to go, stating that they had to get up early the following morning. Mikasa and I made a silent agreement to leave the two fucking love-blonds alone (I swear, the tension that was going on was fucking unreal and so hard _not_ to notice) and head back to the cabin.

But surprisingly enough, not even two fucking hours later, Armin was already joining us. Of course, I was suspicious as hell when he walked through the cabin door and headed almost fucking immediately to the bathroom. His face had been really pink and he almost seemed really flustered. I had to try so fucking hard not to let my mind wonder about what went down once we left. But, I knew the look he had on his face almost too fucking well.

The evening ended fucking grand. I had somehow (I don’t even fucking know why) told Mikasa and Armin about how Marco had asked me to kiss him. Mikasa had plainly congratulated me while Armin seemed really fucking excited. He kept saying shit like “I thought so,” and “I had a hunch that he might be closet gay.”

Hell, I was fucking shocked when Armin said shit like that. And the most annoying thing was that he didn’t even explain it to me. (Seriously, I got none of those signs, even when I thought back to all our interactions. Did Armin even look carefully enough? Marco seemed like a perfectly normal straight bloke to me) So instead, he agreed to help me find Marco again (so I could talk to him about it) after we booked our tour and as long as I was okay with the blond-stud hanging around us all day. (Apparently Erwin had insisted that he wanted to spend the day with the blondie. What a big fucking surprise. I sure as hell didn’t see that coming. That was sarcasm, for those dipshits who didn’t notice.)

But, that’s how Monday (January 13th) had started. It was strangely peaceful and all I could think about was Marco. (God fucking damn it. Now I really did sound like a love-sick fool. What was I!? Fucking fourteen!?) But the memory of his lips, the soft black hair, and the roughness of his jaws (that you could only feel from kissing a bloke) was all that I could think of. And somehow the thought of seeing Marco again and being able to kiss him (I hope to fucking god so) did things to my stomach I hadn’t felt in a really long fucking time. Fuck, how long had it even been since I had kissed someone? With the need to study my ass off at the latter half of the previous year; I barely even got fucking anything.

I seemed to have lost myself in my thoughts until I was rudely fucking interrupted by the alarm clock.  Eren was the first one to hop off the top bunk bed and almost nearly fucking ran to the bathroom.

“I think we need to get to bed earlier tonight,” Armin yawned (he sounded pretty fucking croaky if you asked me) as he slid off the top bunk, not bothering to reach for the ladder that had somehow fucking fallen over during the night. (How the hell did we not wake up to that?)

“What time did you get back, Eren?” Mikasa asked once the shit-stain was back in the room while we all got changed and ready for the day. (Honestly, I was fucking curious as hell too. What did the shit-stain get up to?)

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “It was ace though! Hanji can talk for fucking hours.”

“Ha? So you missed out on the best fucking foam party just to listen to some oldies chat?” I scoffed, quirking my brow once I was fully dressed. (Of course, my fucking voice was a little throaty from all the yelling and laughing from the previous night. I guess this was why Armin sounded a little croaky too.)

“For your fucking information, horse-face, they’re not that old. At least I’m not aiming for a fucking sheepshagger,” he barked.

“So you’re actually aiming for one of them?” I gasped. And almost instantly that shit-eating grin he wore faltered.

“W-What! Fuck no, horse-face. I was just saying.”

“Guys, please. Enough,” Armin warned. The shit-stain just grunted as he went searching in the drawers. I, on the other hand headed towards the door, ready to get the day started.

“We’ll meet you at the buffet. Jean and I are going to Erwin’s room quickly,” Armin stated before he was the out the door with me.

We headed for Deck 11 (a deck I actually haven’t been on since the fucking tour of the ship) in comfortable silence. Surprisingly enough, there were a lot less doors on the outer ends than there were on our deck and it only made me realise that maybe this was where all the fucking rich people stayed or some shit.

Obviously I was too lost in my own fucking thoughts because before I even fucking knew it I rammed into Armin as he came to a halt. How the fuck could he even remember the blond-stud’s cabin number? (Seriously, the number was fucking difficult compared to ours. It even had letters at the beginning.) But, I took a wild guess and decided that maybe he’s been here one too many fucking times.

Soon after he knocked on the door, I got a sight I thought I’d never actually fucking see. Because as soon as that door opened it was like a fucking gateway to a heavenly blond god. His appearance almost reminded me of how he looked during the Darwin porting, but just a hell of a fucking lot cleaner. Okay scratch that. It looked like he just got out of fucking bed or some shit.

 _Holy fuck_. How the fuck did the blond-stud look as hot as he did with bed hair? He was only in a fucking unbuttoned dress shirt (obviously the one from the previous night) and these fucking tight as grundies. And holy fucking hell. They left nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, for the imagination. (I don’t even fucking care that I was openly staring at his crotch.) Hell yeah. Armin didn’t even need to fucking confirm it. This man was well fucking endowed down there. (And that’s how I sudden understood why the blondie wanted to take it slow. But obviously I was just thinking of it in the dirty way rather than what he really had in mind.)

Erwin stepped aside from the door and invited us in with a quiet chuckle, “Good morning.”

“Morning. I thought I’d bring Jean along to show him your room,” Armin explained, as he allowed me to go in first.

“Ahh, I see. Well, just let me get ready,” he answered. Of course, this meant I couldn’t have a good look at the bathroom (but the split second I got of it was fucking amazing) as Armin gently pushed me further down the small hallway.

And oh my fucking god. It fucking luxury:  a double bed, a couch, a fucking massive television on one of the two fucking desks (oh god, even a laptop on the other one. Obviously the blond-stud wasn’t sleeping but rather was busy with it before we had arrived) and even a door to a massive balcony. Shit! There were two fucking deck chairs on it too!

“Holy fuck,” I mumbled, doing another take of the whole room.

“Much better than ours, wouldn’t you agree?” Armin affirmed,

“Talk about fucking luxury,” I agreed, still so fucking gobsmacked. Surprisingly it was a lot cleaner than I expected it to be. But what was I even fucking thinking? This was the fucking blond-stud. He never (okay that’s a fucking lie) had a hair out of place.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Erwin announced.

We found the others surprisingly easily in the buffet section. For once I decided not to bulk up on pastries but rather try the other food the buffet had to offer. And holy fuck, was it a great fucking idea. The french toast was almost as fucking heavenly as the pastries. May these fucking cooks on the ship live a happy fucking life. (Or just... you know... cook for me for the rest of my life.)

We all idly chatted for a while as we ate our breakfast. The blond-stud was already fucking done in a matter of minutes (holy fuck could he eat fast compared to dinner time) and just as he was about to start a new stage of the conversation we were having, someone had called out.

“Erwin!!!” Hanji almost fucking ran to our table.

“Hanji, is there a problem?” He asked.

We all just watched as the crazy woman fucking squealed over how they walked past a lady who was taking in names for some fucking wine tasting class the day after tomorrow. And apparently it was so fucking important, that she had to find the blond-stud to join in. He had excused himself and told Armin that he would meet us down at the receptionist on Deck 5 in ten minutes or so. Of course, I sure as hell noticed a small wave of disappointment flash over the blondie’s face for a split second.

“That’s okay,” Armin murmured. Erwin just shot him a small smile (oh god. The look on his fucking face when he smiled was enough to make my own fucking legs go jelly-like) and patted his shoulder.

“I’ll write down your name too.”

“N-no, it’s fine!” Armin squeaked.

“It’s fine,” Erwin chuckled before he walked away. God. Why didn’t the blondie just accept a free fucking wine tasting session? Well, it didn’t fucking matter. It was obvious as hell that the blond-stud was still going to write Armin’s name down. (And pay for him)

After the small scene we all just went back to eating. Well, that was until the blondie decided to interrupt the peace and quiet.   

“So, we’re all okay with the tour number three?” Armin questioned.

“Was that the one that has all the temples or the beach?” Sasha asked, before scoffing down another piece of toast.

“Sash, I’m sure they all had the beach,” Connie corrected.

“Was it the monkey one?” She tried again.

“No, we decided not to do the monkey one. That was the first option,” Armin explained. “It was a choice between the city sites or the markets and temples.”

“Let’s go for the markets then. You said we’d visit temples, didn’t you?” Mikasa interjected before anyone else could ask stupid fucking questions. Thank fucking god.

“Yes, that was the third option,” Armin nodded.

And with that, we all finished off our breakfasts quickly before heading down the stairs to Deck 5. Surprisingly enough the line was pretty fucking long and I could only cross my fucking fingers that there was still enough space left for the tour. There was no way in hell that I wanted to choose the first option. I didn’t want to see fucking monkeys up close and personal. Camels were fucking enough.

When we were close to the receptionist desk the blond-stud had joined us. And he was so fucking nice that he even apologised to the blondie and almost instantly his arm was wrapped around his waist. God. Could they seriously not fucking do that shit in front of me?

Standing in the fucking long as queue was getting to me and watching the two fucking blonds flash their affection in front of me was a pain. I just wanted to book the fucking tour and fulfil Armin’s promise of helping me to find Marco. I don’t even fucking know why I hadn’t asked the previous night what he had planned for the following day. And so far, even when I was on a look out for him when walking down the stairs, there was not a single sign of him or his mates.

“Sash and I are going to be on Deck 14 all day,” Connie stated once we were done booking our tour. (Thank fucking god we got the one we wanted)

“We’ll join you in a little bit,” Armin acknowledged, looking towards me with a bright smile on his face. Oh lord, thank fucking you, Armin. I just hope to god we’d be able to find Marco and his mates.

Mikasa and the shit-stain had excused themselves before we started our search. Mikasa had said something about wanting to check out some stalls that she noticed were placed out by the shops when we had walked down the stairs. And that left the two blonds and me to search the whole fucking ship.  

But what was I even fucking expecting? I should have known by now that searching the whole ship was pointless. How many times had I in the past walked up and down the hallways in search of the freckled boy? Fuck, even with the blond-stud’s help, we didn’t find Marco or his fucking mates. Armin had guessed that they were in a class or maybe they were on the move and we just kept missing them.

So, after an hour of fucking searching, we decided to meet Connie and Sasha on Deck 14. Of course we first stopped by our cabins to get sunblock and our towels, since obviously none of us were fucking ready to hit the sun. (And I sure as hell didn’t want to end up looking like a fucking tomato.)

Going outside and up to the deck was only a reminder that it was still hot and humid as fucking ever. At least the sky was mostly clear except for a few clouds. But for the most part, it was a lot more bearable than the previous day. (At least I could fucking breathe this time.)

Once we spotted Connie and Sasha snoring away on their deck chairs. (Well, except for Sasha. She was surprisingly reading the book Armin had the previous day. I don’t even fucking know how she got her hands on it) I ended up taking the deck chair next to her while Armin took the one next to me.

As soon as we sat down on the fucking deck chairs, it was like the invitation of ‘take your shirts off’ immediately hit the blond-stud straight in the fucking head. And I’ll be fucking honest, as soon as his shirt was off, I was too fucking aware of how little I was compared to his fucking guns. (I was thinking of taking mine off too, but as soon as I saw his body again I fucking groaned) And I swear, the blondie could not take his eyes off the blond-stud as soon as the shirt was removed. (I could not fucking blame him, cause I was having one hell of a good peek behind my sunnies too) And oh fuck, he went so flustered when Erwin asked him to rub sunblock on his back. Well fucking done, blondie. You’re still scoring so fucking well.

And maybe I was still just a little (like the littlest amount) jealous of them. (Why did Armin have so much fucking lucky!?) I was a little disappointed and confused by Marco’s reaction the previous night and even more fucking confused that he didn’t organise for us to meet again. I seriously would have thought that we’d get together to talk about whatever happened between us, but apparently not. Did he regret it? Was he going to pass this off as a onetime thing? (And why the fucking hell did that leave the most annoying fucking knot in my stomach?) I could only hope I would find him soon.

 

-

 

Rest of the morning and arvo was spent napping away. Hell, even the blondie had fallen asleep at some point. And I’m ninety-nine-percent sure that the blond-stud had a bit of a snooze too. At one point he had ordered some fucking strong liquor on the rocks and I could only fucking imagine how that must have knocked him out. If it was me who was drunk it, I would have been fucking snoring the whole arvo away. Instead, I opted to ordering five or so fruit cocktails over the day again.

This time they had another barbie at around five in the arvo. So, I had followed the match made in heaven and grabbed a couple of sausages since the other two blonds obviously didn’t notice the smell. Of course, by the time I reached the deck chairs again, they were awake and chatting. And as soon as they realised I had three sausages and buns in hand, they fucking cheered. (Man, I was being a thoughtful fucking bloke lately. Normally I would never do shit like this.)

“Still no sign of Marco?” Armin asked once he was on the end of his sausage. When I turned my head towards him, I couldn’t help but watch intently at the scene behind him as the blond-stud ate his own. Oh fuck. Armin was missing such a good fucking show. And he wasn’t even fucking trying to make it look good. I was just the one doing the fucking perving.

“Nah. Not even any of his mates came for the barbie,” I sighed.

“We’ll see him at dinner, don’t worry too much,” Armin reassured, leaning over to pat my shoulder.

I ended up just grunting a reply as I finished my own sausage. Obviously blondie was right. I would see him at dinner. And I sure as hell was going to grab his attention afterwards. I seriously had to fucking talk to him about the previous night. It was fucking eating away at me the whole day. (And it didn’t help that Armin’s theories were nagging at me constantly.)

“Wanna’ hit the pool, Jean?” Connie asked, already standing next to Sasha. She was pulling off her own shirt as he asked me to join them.

“Hell yeah,” I replied. A swim sounded like one great fucking idea. I was sweating like fucking crazy and a swim seemed to be calling to me. “Can you watch my stuff, Armin?” I asked, pulling off my own shirt, cap and sunnies.

“Yeah, sure,” he nodded. I threw it all onto the bottom of his deck chair and grabbed onto the towel I had brought.  

And holy fuck, was a swim the best fucking thing. The water was so fucking refreshing that I almost wanted to stay in it all fucking night. Sasha and Connie were being fucking energetic as always and kept splashing water at each other. (And at times at me, which was fucking annoying.) The other people in the pool didn’t really give a fuck, but eventually I grew tired of their antics. I ended up sitting around the rim with my towel around my waist. The small breeze that passed every few minutes was fucking heaven compared to the humidity.

And as I looked out to all the people on the deck chairs around the pool I realised something. Seriously, how!? How the fuck had I not noticed it when I first came down here!? Annie and Bertl were laying on their own deck chairs around the pool. Obviously Annie was tanning while Bertl was just staring out with his own pair of sunnies. And I fucking swear, he shuddered as soon as he noticed I was staring at him. But like fucking hell that I cared! I had finally fucking found them!

Without even explaining myself to the match made in heaven, I got up with the towel around my waist and headed straight towards to the two on the deck chairs.

“G’day guys,” I greeted.

Annie lifted her head towards me and almost instantly the normal face she wore turned into a frown. God, was she that fucking disappointed to see me? It didn’t help that Bertl was quietly sitting there, shitting his fucking pants as usual.

“Hi,” she finally replied. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah, I’m looking for Marco,” I replied quickly. And only then did I realise that they weren’t that fucking keen on telling me where he was.

“Why?” Bertl asked. Holy fuck, he actually spoke! And oh fuck. I actually forgot how strong his accent was compared to Marco and Reiner.

“Why not? I need to talk to him,” I explained, removing the towel from my waist and draping it over my shoulders.

They looked at each other for a long as fucking time. (I’m going to take a giant guess and say that Marco had obviously told them what went down. And either they weren’t too happy about it or there was something up with Marco. And knowing that only made me that much more fucking eager to find him.) And I was about to fucking ask again before Annie finally sighed.

“He’s at one of the bars on Deck 7 with Reiner.”  

“Thanks!” I blurted out, quickly racing towards the other side of the deck. (Well, more like speed fucking walking. Cause there was no way in hell that I wanted to get into trouble for running.) And I didn’t even care that I was going back inside fucking shirtless. I had to talk to him. There was no fucking way I was going to miss up on this.

Thank fucking god finding them wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. As soon as I reached Deck 7 and headed in the direction of the bars, I saw Reiner sitting at the bar that our cocktail class was held at. Reiner was leaning against the bar counter and facing my way (and holy fuck. Did I ever mention this guy was bulky and ripped? The tank top did nothing but fucking give me one hell of a good sight. Holy shit, he was actually kind of hot) and right next to him sat Marco, facing what seemed to be Eld who was behind the counter.

I took a deep breath and held onto the towel tightly as I headed their way. Of fucking course Reiner had to be the first one to spot me. And god, did he make that fucking obvious. I could even hear his booming laugh metres away. Hell, the waving was enough of a fucking sign, why did he have to laugh on top of it? (Thank god he was actually happy to see me compared to the other two.)

“Hey horse-face!” Reiner laughed once I was about two metres away.

“Jean. My name is Jean, sheepshagger,” I retorted, ignoring him completely and heading towards the free bar stool next to Marco. “G’day Marco.”

Only then did he turn his head towards me. And holy fuck, I was so fucking glad to see him again. His fucking sunburn was finally gone and it left him with a much darker face (and arms, holy shit! He was so fucking tanned. I swear, he was somehow even darker than me who has been in the sun for years) than what I met him with. (I could only hope his t-shirt tan was gone too) It did nothing but make those fucking freckles of him even better. Shit.

As soon as our eyes met he beamed his iconic smile before replying, “Hi Jean! How you been?”

I quirked an eyebrow before sitting down. It didn’t seem like he was acting any differently than normal. He was still that bright fucking sunshine of a guy. But it’s not like either of us could bring the previous night up with Reiner around. I could only fucking imagine how that would end.

“Lazy as fuck. So, uh... I’ve been looking for you,” I replied. He chuckled, looking away from me and to a half glass of that fucking good cocktail he had the previous night.

“You found me pretty quickly then,” he mumbled, taking a sip of his cocktail.

“It’s not the first fucking time,” I confessed. I’m pretty sure I caught him by surprised because instead of a reply, I got a gasp and choke. Of course, I didn’t miss that fucking cute as blush that covered his cheeks as he coughed. I could only guess that he was finally putting the fucking pieces together and realising that I wasn’t stalking the shits out of his sweaty fucking mate.

“You’ve got some choice stalker skills, horse-face,” Reiner’s voice startled both of us. Fuck, I actually fucking forgot that he probably heard that.

“Butt out, sheepshagger,” I growled, running a hand through my wet hair.

“Kinda’ hard to when there’s an Aussie prick trying to hit on my friend. He’s a sheepshagger too, y’know?” He countered. And holy fuck. That tone in his voice had me fucking leaning away and grabbing hold onto my towel. Shit. Marco had one hell of a fucking scary friend.

“Reiner, please. Stop being such an egg. You know that’s not true!” Marco snapped. Holy hell. And never did I even think that Marco could snap like that either. Holy fucking shit. All I could do was stare at him as he sent Reiner this fucking sour scowl. It went strangely quiet as they stared at each other for a long while. Obviously Reiner was still not that keen on me. Actually, it sure as hell sounded like he still thought I was a crazy as fucking stalker, which I wasn’t. But thank fucking heavens for Marco.

Reiner eventually sighed, “Right. I guess you’re right. Look, I’ll be the better man and apologise.” He looked my way and gave me a small smile.  “I’m warning you, bro. Don’t fuck with Marco. He’s special, alright?”

I just nodded my head frantically, still holding on to my towel for my fucking life. And then Marco shot me a look too. And holy fucking hell. His cheeks were so fucking red and if I didn’t know any better his eyes were a little wetter than they were before. I figured maybe I should be a good bloke too.

“I’m sorry.... too,” I ended up breathing. Hell, to even get the fucking words out of my mouth was a struggle.

“That makes us cool then, okay? I guess I’ll leave you two alone. I’m going to find Annie and Bertl,” Reiner announced after nodding to my apology.  He began to walk away until I remembered that I should probably (just to be a nice as fucking guy and get into his good books again) tell him where I saw them.

“They’re on Deck 12,” I called out.

“Sweet as. Thanks, bro!” Reiner gave me a wave of his hand as he started picking up speed. Once Reiner was out of sight, I turned back around in the bar stool and called Eld to get a drink. I went for a fruit cocktail cause I was so fucking thirsty after that small scene.

Strangely enough, we were both quiet as fucking ever while we waited for my drink. (And honestly, it was so fucking awkward. Maybe as awkward as the first time we went to the bar together.) I didn’t know how to start up a conversation with him again. And by the looks of his red fucking face and slumped shoulders, he had no idea how either. Only after Eld had given my drink and card back did Marco finally speak after a quiet sigh.

“I’m... really sorry. Reiner can be a bit protective of me at times,” he mumbled. Hell, I had to fucking listen really good just to hear what he said.

“Yeah... Does he think he’s your mum or something?” I snorted, taking a sip of the heavenly fucking good mango cocktail. God, these things were so fucking good!

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have told anyone about last night, aye?” He mumbled again. “But, oh-my-god... I’m just really embarrassed right now,” he suddenly (like it actually fucking startled me) howled with laughter. He even fucking threw his head back. Of course, his laugh was contagious as fuck (just like that fucking amazing smiles of his) that I ended up chuckling myself. And only once the laughter died down, he added on, “Honestly, it did not go as I expected it to.”

“Neither here, man,” I reassured. Because honest to fucking god, I expected this to be awkward as hell and maybe a lot smoother without a fucking brawl beforehand.

“Reiner’s not that bad, normally. I think he’s just annoyed that you’ve been making Bertl nervous,” he explained.

“Don’t blame him. That bloke sure knows how to sweat,” I joked. Marco found my reply hilarious as he began to laugh again. (Okay, let’s be real here, if Marco was the one stalking and hitting on Armin, I would be on fucking edge too.) But I wasn’t aiming for Bertl. I was aiming for Marco and I hoped to god he knew that by now. (How could he fucking not, especially after the previous day?)

Another string of silence filled us (thankfully it wasn’t awkward this time) as we both rested our elbows onto the counter top. Eventually I moved one of my elbows closer to him and before I knew it, we were touching. (I could have fucking sworn I heard a small gasp from him once he felt the heat my skin.)

“So... Last night,” I mused quietly, taking another small sip of my drink. It was the only fucking thing I could do to ignore the sudden increase of my fucking heart rate. I mean fuck, even my hands were becoming clammy. Shit!

“Yeah...  about last night,” he murmured. I stole a quick glance at him and immediately noticed that his cheeks were still fucking red at ever. So, he was blushing after all.

“...I thought you were straight,” I finally replied. There was no way around this shit. I just had to be straight fucking forward with him. He’s thrown me off my fucking stride so many times in the past couple of days; it was about fucking time I threw him off as well.

At first he grimaced but somehow he replied with a chuckle instead, “That’s a lot to assume of somebody, aye?” He gave me a quick look before looking back down to his drink. I think it was to see my reaction or some shit. I don’t even fucking know.

“I guess. So what, are you experimenting or some shit?”

He ended up sighing and running a hand through his own hair. And all I got was a fucking whiff of sunblock and the smell of his cologne that I remembered from our two bar nights. (God, he still smelt so fucking good.) And yet, he still didn’t fucking replying.

“Unsure, maybe?” I offered again.

“Not exactly unsure. It’s more like I’ve never went for it,” he admitted, finally looking up towards me. And for the first fucking time he gave a really fucking weird smile. But his eyes... It was weird. It was really fucking weird. It was like a mixture of happiness and something I couldn’t put my mind on.

I blame the fact that my head was spinning a million fucking miles a second that I couldn’t read him properly. He just admitted it. He finally fucking told me his sexuality. And I didn’t know what to fucking do. I had spent so long hoping that he was at least interested in guys. And somehow along the way I accepted the fact that he was straight. But now that fucking blew up in my face. Holy shit!

“God... So Armin guessed right,” I breathed. “You’re closet gay?” This was fucking unreal. How the hell did Armin even see this shit? I could have fucking sworn Marco was straight. He did all the straight fucking things. I mean fuck, he even leapt when I had touched him. How the hell did I not notice whatever Armin had seen? Did my fucking gay crush blind me or some shit? (Cause I swear, I would have realised it.)

He chuckled quietly once the words left my mouth. Surprisingly he fucking tapped my shoulder and almost instantly a giant fucking smile was plastered on his face again. And using his hands as quotation marks (holy fuck what a cheeky bloke) he replied, “No, I’m bi, you dipshit.”

I couldn’t help but actually fucking laugh. He was fucking quoting me and oh dear fucking lord. He was bi too. He was actually fucking bi. _Oh_. Oh god. Oh Karma. Whoever the fuck was dealing my fucking fate, thank fucking you for this freckled sheepshagger. And better yet, thank you for allowing me this chance. Hell yeah! (God, I was so fucking relieved!)

“I’m not exactly in the closet for the most part... I mean, I’m out except for my ‘rents,” he explained. “Well, I’m not too open about it anyway, which is probably why you didn’t realise. I’m not like you, that’s for sure. You’re just so full of yourself, aye,” he beamed another smile, nudging his shoulder against mine. God. Now I understood the look he had given me. It was fucking relief, wasn’t it? (Cause hell, I was feeling it too!) But, I still couldn’t wrap it around my head. Like seriously, not to rain on his parade or some shit, but I still think he was in the closet. Probably.

“Hah? When you’re a stud like me, of course you gotta’ make use of it,” I boasted.

“Are you sure you’re a stud? You seem more like a gelding, aye.” Holy fuck. Holy fucking shit. Was he teasing me?

“S-shut the fuck up, you sheepshagger,” I groaned teasingly.

“Alright, alright.  Calm your knickers, Jean,” he giggled. Oh god, he was fucking giggling and... Oh lord.

“God, you are fucking ten, aren’t ya?” I taunted, sending him a giant fucking shit-eating grin. It earned me another bark of laughter. At least he was fucking laughing.

We eventually fell into a surprisingly short silence after we tried to calm our fucking lungs from all the laughter. During that short moment of silence I thought of the next best thing that needed an answer.

“So, how did you know I was aiming for you?” I asked, taking a long sip of my drink. Hell, I knew by now that he knew. I mean sure, it was it obvious now that I had a major fucking crush on him, but I wanted to know how figured it out.

“You really don’t know subtlety do you?”

“Hah? What the fuck do you mean?” I quirked my brows. What? I’m sure as hell I was being subtle.

“Well... I recommend you stare a lot less next time,” he explained. Fuck.... I couldn’t help it. I had to agree. Only because he was actually fucking right. Maybe I did stare too much. But at least he got the fucking picture. I mean, fuck, I had to do it. It was the only way I had a chance with him when I thought he was straight.

“S-shut up! If you knew what a beaut you are, then you’d stare too,” I confessed. Of course, my fucking blood decided to turn my face hot. God! I wasn’t blushing, I fucking swear, okay!?

“But you were blatantly after me. It was so obvious, Jean. And honestly, it was _mean_ as to throw you off,” he laughed. _Mean as?_ What was that? Sheepshagger fucking talk? I’m going to take a wild guess and think he means fun or some shit.

“Mean as? What is that? Your mate said that last night too.”

“It means good,” he explained, giving me a small smile.

“Sheepshagger talk is just so fucking confusing,” I scoffed, waving my hand.

He chuckled before he finished off his drink. For some fucking reason we fell back into a short silence as he ordered another drink. This gave me time to actually fucking breathe. Because holy fuck, did this shit escalate quickly. I seriously felt like I got fucking whiplash or some shit. But the best part of it was that I had a fucking decent shot now. And knowing what went down the previous night (with that kiss and all) I knew much more would happen from here on out.

“You know... I was being honest when I asked you that gay question when we first spoke at the bar,” Marco interrupted my thoughts.

“Seriously? I didn’t understand why the fuck you wanted to know,” I admitted. Cause let’s be fucking real, I seriously did not get why at the time he brought it up. I mean fuck, it was one of the first things he asked that pulled me off my stride.

“True, it’s not something you’d ask a stranger, aye?”

“We’re not strangers anymore, Marco,” I hinted. Eld interrupted us then and handed Marco another heavenly looking fucking drink. God. This one was full on fucking chocolate. Hell, it looked like a fucking chocolate smoothie. How the hell did he know of these cocktails?

“For the sake of being honest, how did you know then?” He asked again after he took a sip. This time he turned his body towards me and oh lord. Oh fucking lord. Our knees touched and oh god. (And let me tell you, we were both wearing fucking shorts and oh lord. Skin contact was like fucking heaven.) Who the fuck was being obvious now, freckled boy!?

“Fuck, I don’t even know,” I answered, running a hand through my longer hair. Thankfully by now my hair was actually fucking dry. “I just realised it one day, man. I think I can put most of the blame on Armin though.”

Maybe it was best not to mention the fucking crush I had Mikasa in the middle of whatever the fuck high school was. But fuck it, as soon as Armin came into my life, it was like I was opened to the holy world of whatever gayness was. And the funniest fucking thing was, although I was pegging after chicks for the most part, as soon as I realise that I found a guy hot, it somehow went far beyond my fucking control. I mean hell; I till today seem to fucking perve at more blokes than chicks.

“I see. You two seem really close, aye?” He eyed my curiously. Strangely enough, he seemed to really fucking enjoy questioning me. (Like he looked really fucking interested) How odd.

“We are... I mean, we went out for like a year.”

“Wow! Really? I thought maybe you two were just too good of friends,” he replied. I swear, his eyes fucking grew huge as. He looked so fucking stunned. (He was pulling that owl look on me again.) Was it really that much of a fucking surprise to him?

“Nah. I kinda’ had this huge as fucking man-crush on him when I first started high school. I mean fuck, you should’ve seen him. He was a total beaut when he was younger. Well... uh... not that he isn’t now and all. I mean fuck, look at the hot guy he hooked up with,” I admitted. It was the honest fucking truth. Armin was, to this day, so hot. Fuck it, how many times have I mentioned how fucking jealous I was of the blond-stud?

“Erwin is a pretty choice find, aye?” Marco mumbled, drawing my attention again. This time he was leaning his chin on the palm of his hand.

“God, that sheepshagger talk of yours,” I snorted. All I got was a chuckle from him and then another curious look that told me to explain the rest.

“Anyway. I was pinning after him for a good fucking three years until I asked him out. I mean, I was dating our people before him, but it took me a while to finally ask him out,” I chuckled fondly as I the faint memory surged back. “I guess it was more like I hooked up with him at one of the parties. And before I knew it we were, I don’t know, dating? For like a year.”

“What happened?” He quirked a brow, taking a long (and I mean a long as) fucking sip.

“He pulled an ‘I need to study’ excuse on me. Not that I could blame him or anything. He’s pretty fucking smart,” I smiled.  For some fucking reason that was one of the strongest memories I had of Armin and our relationship. It wasn’t like I was sad or anything. Maybe just a bit disappointed. Hell, he taught me whatever the fuck there was to know about being gay. (Especially the sex. Ah, yeah. Definitely the fucking sex.)

“And that’s when all the parties began?”

“Hell yeah. Man, I spent my last two years of high school getting blowjobs from so many fucking people. Mostly girls though. It was pretty hard to find open gay guys who knew what they’re fucking doing,” I bragged. It was the fucking truth though. Sure, Armin helped me out to find a few guys, but none of them ever wanted more than a fast blow or some shit. Not that I cared because none of them were even worth my fucking time beyond the odd hook up. The best rule was: what happens at parties stays at fucking parties.

“I really don’t get your school system, aye? It’s really different compared to ours,” he added.

“Obviously you dipshit,” I scoffed. Of fucking course it wouldn’t be the same. But what the fuck, our countries were so close to each other, why weren’t the years within high school the same? It doesn’t make any sense.

“Such a sad one, Jean!” He teased. I couldn’t help but laugh as he bumped his shoulder against mine again. And oh lord, that fucking blush on his face that appeared again was going to be the fucking end of me, I swear. “So... Did anything else ever happen between you two?”

“We had the odd root in year eleven. Nothing too grand.”

Which was true. Sure, the blondie had said we hadn’t been together ‘officially’ since two years ago. But hell, I was such a good fucking bloke in bed that in the second to last year of high school he still agreed to get it on every once and a while. And I guess this is the time where I come fucking clean to all you dipshit readers. Armin is the _only_ male I ever fucking rooted with. (Or should I say ‘intercourse’?) Oh sure, I’ve gotten and given heaps of fucking blowjobs and other shit you do with chicks. (And I may have rooted once with just one, just to make sure of my preferences) But it was nothing more than that. And it’s not like I’d tell Marco that for now... Fuck that. I wanted to keep my fucking ego around him for now.

“I see,” he nodded.

For a while he looked away and watched the people walk past. And that’s when I noticed that the cocktail bar was suddenly packed with lots of people around it. I figured it was because dinner was being served in the buffet around this time or some shit. But I didn’t care much. Instead, I found myself wondering more about Marco. He was always reluctant to tell me about himself. And somehow that only urged me on to ask again. Maybe he’d fucking say something now that he ‘came out’ to me.

“What about you, Marco?”

“Hm?” He hummed, turning his head back to me. It took him a couple of seconds before he replied. “Well, I don’t have much to tell.”

“Come on. You can’t be a fucking virgin. You’re like what, nineteen? Twenty?” I asked, leaning back and away from the counter top and looking straight on to him.

“Nineteen. Twenty in June,” he corrected.

“Fuck, so are you?” I quirked my brow. I couldn’t help but fucking smirk. Holy fucking shit. Not only has he never gotten full on wasted, but he hasn’t had sex either!? This guy was a fucking saint. Holy shit. What was he? A freckled fucking angel or what?

“...Yes,” he murmured, tilting his head towards his drink. Holy shit. And this time he was fucking blushing full on. Holy damn!

“Holy fucking shit. Are you serious, man?”

“I-I mean... I’ve never really gone _that_ far. I’ve dated a few girls, but it was only for a short time. I-I’m kind of more focused on my work, aye?” He mumbled, still not meeting my eyes.

“I guess your parents pushed you too much in that direction, mate,” I offered, shrugging my shoulders. I took a final sip of my drink before the bubbly noises sounded between us.

“Not really? My mum is always nagging me about a girlfriend. But studies are more important, aye?” He replied softly, still staring at his drink intently. Fuck! Why wasn’t he looking at me?

“Ya’ reckon? I think you just pulled that excuse on me too,” I replied nonchalantly. Finally, I got a fucking reaction out of him. His head shot up so fucking quickly. Even his eyes were fucking huge again. Holy shit.

“What?”

“I think you’re just aiming for guys but can’t be open about it. So you pull that card to have an excuse to not look at chicks. That’s what I reckon, anyway,” I speculated. He’s not the fucking only one though. I did that at the beginning too. (Which explains the girl I rooted with) Hell, I think everyone does that at some fucking point.

“And maybe you’re right, aye. I’m just not use to accepting a guy’s offers,” he chuckled. His face expression softened and I was left with him beaming this giant as smile at me. It was so fucking good to see him smile again.

“So, do your mates know?”

“Of course. Reiner figured it out sometime in high school. I guess maybe that explains why he acted like he did before. He’s just worried I’ll fall for a partner who only wants to get in my pants,” he smiled. Well, that sure as hell explained a lot. Finally everything made a lot more fucking sense than before.

“I guess that motto Erwin brought up wasn’t that much of a help on my part, right?” I noted. Well, it was still fucking true. I was so fucking ready to get him in bed. But, with the way he is now, it’d only fucking ruin him. And knowing that he has some kind of fucking mad mode only made me less eager for the root and more eager to get to know him first. But fuck! I didn’t have enough fucking time for this shit. By the sounds of it, I would get one fucking lay and that’s it. And maybe somehow (I don’t even fucking know how) I was okay with that. Normally I’d just give up straight away and find a new bloke. But... there was something about Marco that lured me in. Maybe Reiner was right, there was something _special_ about Marco.

He snorted, “Definitely. But you’re not exactly much of a threat to me. You’re pretty much a coward, aye?”

“Normally, fuck no. But for some reason around you I just fuck it all up,” I admitted. God, how did he see it so fucking clearly? How!? He was almost like the fucking blondie or some shit. Could he read my fucking mind too or something!?

“I’m kind of glad,” he sighed, taking hold of his nearly empty drink.

“Why?”

 “Well... uh... Cause you’re quite nice. Our day together in Broome was pretty mean, aye?” He answered, sipping slowly. Oh lord. The way he was looking at me was enough to make even me fucking blush. Holy fuck, Marco. Don’t do this shit to me! My self control can’t take it!

“God, you’re such a fucking pleaser, aren’t ya, Marco?” I snorted and quirked a brow at him.

“S-sometimes....” He muttered, finishing off his drink. And that’s when I knew it was time to ask the question that was lingering in my fucking head this whole time.

“So... I don’t really get it. Are we going to ignore last night happened or...” I started, crossing my arms.

“No... Not exactly. I -I... wouldn’t mind getting to know you better in _that_ way, especially when I finally have the chance to,” he replied. Oh lord, his stutter was actually fucking cute. But holy fucking shit! All I could do was fucking stare at him with my eyes fucking wide open. Holy shit, he fucking stunned me. Whoa!

And then he added, “I-I mean, as long as you realise that you’re not going to get a quick lay out of me.”

And I fucking swear, the smile that plastered on my face was the biggest one I pulled all day. Fuck yeah! Score to me, Jean Kirstein! Hell yeah!!!

“Fuck, I don’t even care. If it means spending more time with you with an eventual lay, then I’m up for it.”

“Sweet as,” he smiled. Oh lord. Oh lord have fucking mercy. That smile. That fucking blush! That tone in his fucking voice. Oh fuck. Thank fucking god. Just. Bless. Oh god. Finally. Fucking finally!

We fell into some more chatter after we ordered another round of drinks. And honestly, it was fucking great. Our elbows and shoulders constantly bumped and I couldn’t help but feel that this was the best fucking thing that has happened to me in my fucking life. That this whole cruise ship was one fucking great idea and that I should be fucking bending over and thanking Armin for the rest of my fucking life.

Knowing that Marco was _bi_ too and knowing that I had a fucking chance was enough to make me fucking jump and celebrate. Fuck yeah! At this point I didn’t even care that it may take a long as fucking time to get somewhere. At least my crush wasn’t one sided anymore. Hell yeah!

 

-

 

It was around before seven (I think? I’m not even fucking sure) when Marco broke our chatter. Of course, I realised something must have been up when he eyed his watch.

“We better get ready for dinner, aye?” He suggested.

“Yeah,” I nodded, taking a look at my own watch. But then I realised, fuck, I didn’t have a watch on. Where the fuck did my watch even go? And then I remembered. _Shit_. I was still shirtless. Holy fucking shit! “Fuck!” I hissed.

“What? What is it?” He questioned, looking at me like he was actually fucking worried.

“I just realised I don’t have my fucking shirt on. I actually fucking forgot!” I confessed. All I got was a wheeze of laughter. A fucking wheeze! Holy shit. He actually thought this shit was funny. But honestly, I really fucking forgot!

“I- haaaha. I was going to ask why you were shirtless. But decided against it,” he chuckled. And oh lord, the way his eyes did a quick fucking scan was enough to make my hands fucking clammy as ever again.  

“I left them with Armin and his blond-stud,” I explained.

“Ah, I see. Shall we go grab it?” He offered.

“Hell yeah.”

The walk up to Deck 12 (and then 14) was quiet but comfortable. Of course, that didn’t stop me from bumping our shoulders and being a silly dipshit around him. That laugh he gave me every time was enough to tell me that he was enjoying his time with me.

It was still fucking humid and cloudy as ever outside. And somehow I was surprised that the sun was already setting. Well, of fucking course it would be. The previous night it had set early too. (This surprised me because normally the sun sets way later.)

I was thankful to find the two blonds still chatting away on their deck chairs. The blond-stud had his shirt on again and strangely enough, Armin was looking pretty fucking red in the face. (I wasn’t too sure if it was from the sun or some other shit.) Not much was said between us as I got my shirt and other stuff. Armin just seemed to be fucking happy as hell to see Marco and told me he was going to get ready at seven-forty or some shit.

I wasn’t too sure whether or not I was supposed to follow Marco once we reached our deck. But for some reason I opted to walking him to his cabin door. I just wanted to be a good bloke, I swear. I wasn’t expecting something like a kiss or some shit. (Okay fine. I was kind of fucking hoping, but could you really blame me!?)

 “Do you want to come in?” Marco offered once he opened his door. Hell fucking yeah! Like hell I was going to miss up on that offer!

“Yeah,” I nodded, walking in after him and shutting the door behind me.

Surprisingly enough his cabin room was almost identical to Mikasa and Sasha’s. The only fucking difference was instead of two single beds, there was a double bed on the right side wall. And I swear, I had to try so fucking hard not to laugh when I saw that Aussie cork hat hanging from the chair by his desk. (That was on the left side of the room) Oh lord. Why the fuck did he even buy such a shitty hat?

For the most part the room was fucking clean. I took a wild guess that it was probably because of his cabin steward. But then I remembered what a fucking trash ours was in comparison to his and instantly decided that it was just Marco. He was just fucking organised or some shit. (Or the fact that he was probably sharing the room with that Annie chick. She seemed like she preferred cleanliness.)

And only after (why the fuck didn’t I see it before!?) I looked out of the window, only to realise that he had a fucking balcony too. “Holy shit, you’re own balcony and everything.”

“I do! It’s really awesome!” He confirmed. And before I even fucking knew it, he was opening the door and holding it open for me to walk through. God. The view he had was amazing. Of course, it wasn’t a fucking grand balcony like the blond-stud’s. (Seriously, who the fuck could top that shit?) But it at least had a small table and two chairs. Hell, it was a lot more than our fucking four bunk-bed cabin. (We didn’t even have a fucking window.)

“So, do you share with Annie or something?” I asked, resting my elbows and arms against the balcony railing. He copied my position, looking out towards the sea. And oh god. There was no fucking way I could not stare at him.

The way he looked. Just... oh lord have fucking mercy on me. It almost reminded me of the previous night. The orange and red hues were blending in with his face and the small breeze rustled that fucking soft black hair of his. God... I would have fucking killed anything to just run my hands through it again. _Oh fuck_. I somehow (turns out I still had good fucking self control) mentally slapped myself for allowing my thoughts to suddenly take a turn for more of the dirty.

“Oh no. Bertl and Reiner are sharing a room and Annie wanted her own. I really didn’t want to share with the two love-birds, so I asked to get my own room,” he finally explained, giving me a curious look once he realised I was staring at him.

Holy fucking shit. He got the room all to himself!? Shit! I seriously (like fucking honest to god seriously) hoped I wasn’t using up my lifetime of fucking luck. Because holy fucking damn! That meant if we ever did root, it’d be so fucking easy to. We had a room where no one could bo-... _No_. The fact that I had to fucking stop myself from that thought was a sign that I was slowly going to lose my self control around this freckled guy.

“Fuck, you must be rich,” I blurted out instead. Seriously. If his dad was a doctor and if he was studying to become one, and knowing that his parents paid for this whole fucking trip, then that only lead to one thing. He was fucking loaded. Was everyone on this ship walking millionaires or some shit!?

“I’m not too sure, aye? It’s my parents who are paying for everything after all,” he retorted.

“Well, if you’re parents are rich then you’re fucking too,” I snickered. For some reason he didn’t reply to that. Instead he just shook his head and chuckled. In the end we fell back into silence as we watched aimlessly out to the sea. And honestly, I really fucking enjoyed it, even if we were just standing there.

“What do you have planned for Indonesia?” He broke our silence.

“A tour or some shit. Armin talked us into it,” I replied nonchalantly.

“That sounds great. I wish I could see the temples,” he retorted. I quickly shot my head towards him and quirked my brow. Obviously he saw that I was questioning why he would even say something like that. “We’re seeing the Gili Islands instead.”

“Shit. I didn’t even realise you could travel to them while at port.”

“Of course you can! There are ferries sailing there all day,” he explained excitedly. God. He seriously loved this travel shit, didn’t he? Okay fine, I’ll fucking admit it. It only made him that much cuter.

“Don’t forget your sunblock this time,” I teased.

“R-right!” He affirmed, giving me a light shove with his shoulder. I couldn’t help but chuckle, pushing him back softly. After a short while of laughter we grew quiet again. That was fine though. For once our fucking silence wasn’t awkward as hell but rather really enjoyable.  

“I probably won’t be able to see you tomorrow,” he stated softly.

“Hah? Why not?”

“Well, we’re only having supper really late since there’s a performance at eight,” he explained. (Oh fucking hell, that sheepshagger lingo was back!) He sounded actually fucking quiet about it. Not that I could blame him, because fuck! Why!? Was there seriously no fucking way we could see each other the following day?

“Are you sure we can’t meet after your dinner?” I urged. To hell with that! I wanted to fucking see him! There was no way in hell that I was going to go a day without him. We finally got fucking somewhere and now I couldn’t see him the following day!?

“I really don’t know, aye? We’re kind of tightly booked tomorrow.”

“I’ll wait for you then. I mean, why the fuck not? When’s your dinner booked for?” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. It was the least I could do.

“Nine-thirty,” he replied. “But, we’re watching another performance at eleven,” he sent me an apologetic smile.

“I’ll talk Armin and the others dipshits into seeing the performance then,” I replied. He was obviously happy about that because all I got was a fucking giant smile.

“Sweet,” he breathed.

And holy fuck... Oh _god_. The look he was giving me. And those freckles and light brown eyes. Oh fuck. Fuck it all. All I could do was stare at him and thank fucking god he gazed back. I couldn’t help but feel the small tension spark between us as we shared this sappy as fucking moment. But before I even fucking knew it, I was leaning over towards him. Fuck, I could even hear my heart beat in my ears again. Hell, the way my stomach flipped told me exactly what I was about to fucking do. And I only hoped to god that he would be okay with it.

The sudden gasp that he breathed was swallowed by my lips as I did the final lean and tilt of my head. The kiss was almost the same as the previous night. It was slow and long. And god... his lips faintly tasted of chocolate milk which only urged me more to turn it into something passionate. But that’d be too fucking much. Right? But with his tender and still timid as hell lips, I decided against it.

“W-we should get ready, aye?” He breathed once we pulled apart ever so slightly with our foreheads still touching.

“Yeah...I... Should go,” I sighed, finally pulling away and standing upright again. “I’ll see you at dinner and maybe tomorrow?” I offered.

“Hm,” he hummed, sending me a small smile before I walked back into his cabin room and headed straight for the door.

“Jean,” he called out once I opened the door. I quickly turned around to eye him curiously. “T-thanks.”

I didn’t really understand why the fuck he was thanking me. Was it because I listened to him earlier on? Was it because I was allowing things to go ‘slowly’ between us? Fuck! I seriously wished he would’ve been fucking clearer. Instead, I just hid my confusion with a smirk and then a sudden shit-eating grin.

“Right... what’s that saying again that you sheepshaggers always reply with? ‘All good, bro’ or some shit?” His sudden laughter only made me smile even fucking wider. Hell yeah! I was fucking good at making him laugh!

“Have a good one!” He finished once he calmed down.

I just sent him another smirk before leaving the door. Now that I actually fucking understood. I knew enough sheepshagger lingo to know that one.

Once I arrived at the cabin, I realised that I still had fifteen or so minutes left until the blondie would return to get ready. And knowing that I still had a decent amount of time, the first thing that I did was hop into that fucking shower.

And holy shit was it fucking great. The heat and pressure was like the greatest fucking invitation to slide my hand down to the part of my body that wasn’t getting enough fucking attention. I was on a borderline of cracking a fat so many times today (and the previous day. Wait no, fucking scratch that. I did have a fucking boner the previous day) that I seriously needed a release from.

And I’ll be an honest fucking bloke and admit, I thought of Marco and nothing fucking else. But instead it was far more than what it was last time. Because oh _fuck_. It was far dirtier than before. Knowing how inexperienced he was, I could only fucking imagine what a cutie (holy shit I just fucking thought that while wanking) he’d be in bed. It wasn’t hard to imagine how easily I’d bring him to completion with a twist of my wrist or a lick of my tongue. But, oh lord. The thought of seeing that fucking face of his contort and moaning for more underneath me was enough to make me not as quiet as I hoped I was being.

Fuck. I couldn’t help it. I was just naturally a little loud in bed. Who could fucking blame me!? Marco was a fucking beaut. And those lips of his were so fucking soft and... Oh god. Oh fucking god! The thought of how good he’d become after a few tries of sucking my cock was enough to send me over the edge as I jerked my dick.

The feeling of my rough hand moving up and down my hard shaft was enough to make me fucking shudder and moan. (And hell yeah, it was his name) All I could do was whine as I picked up the speed and pressed my forehead against the shower wall.

And just like fucking last time, I released so fucking quickly. (The familiar emptiness and relief was such a fucking dream. It felt like the last time was such a long fucking time ago.) I blame it on the fact that I ain’t getting enough wanking time. Hell, none us fucking do. Well, except for the blondie and Connie.

I had realised that I was enjoying the afterglow of my release too fucking much when suddenly there was someone banging on the bathroom door.

“Hurry up, horse-face!” The shit-stained yelled.

“Fuck you, Jaeger!” I hissed back. Obviously that was my call to finish. I grudgingly shut off the water and started to get changed in the clothes I picked out for the evening.

And for some fucking reason, I didn’t question how long the shit-stain was in the cabin for. I mean, who cared? He already heard me once before. What more could I do than torture him some more? And somehow I couldn’t help but grow just a little red when he smirked as we passed each other by the small closest by the bathroom door.

“You better have washed away that horse-sprog of yours,” he taunted. I just shot him a finger as I rounded the corner only to find Armin sitting on the bed with his laptop on his lap.

And that’s when I realised that maybe, just fucking maybe; I was in the shower just a little bit longer than I thought at first. _Oh_. Oh fucking shit! All I got was a smirk from Armin when I sat down on my own bed. Like fucking seriously. All he did was fucking smirk.   

“At least you aren’t as loud as you used to be,” he snickered.

Fuck!!!

 

-

 

Dinner went great. And when I mean great, I mean fucking glorious! Fucking finally! Mikasa had decided to sit next to me instead this time while Hanji and Mike moved over and shoved the agro man and the shit-stain to the end of the table. (Which I was fucking celebrating for.)

I’ve come to a conclusion that Hanji and the weird as (and fucking huge) Mike were okay. By now we were having pretty good discussions. And somehow, I got used to all of Hanji’s crazy stories about their high school lives and what she does at work. To put it simply, she had one hell of a fucking crazy life. Good for her.

And the best part, neither of them really cared that I constantly glanced at Marco. This time every time he blushed I couldn’t help but smirk. Hell, his shy blushes and smiles were enough for me to ignore the fucking sweaty glare I got from Bertl. I could only fucking hope that I’ll be able to get on his good side one day. I mean hell; it couldn’t be that hard, right?

Eventually Hanji and Armin began talking about what we’d be doing while in Lombok. Apparently Erwin’s group decided to hire a personal driver to take them to all the locations they wanted to see. Seriously, holy fucking shit. Why didn’t we think of that? Of course the expression on the blondie’s face told me that he had the exact same fucking thoughts.

And honestly, I seriously fucking enjoyed listening to them yabber on about the places and where the best (oh fuck. I just hoped to god that I’d make it back to the ship alive by the end of the following day) photo opportunities were. And for the most part, I was enjoying it until the shit-stain had grabbed my attention.

“Horse-face!” He called at some point when we had our main meal on the table. Of course, it didn’t just catch my attention but nearly everyone on the fucking table.

“What!?” I hissed, sending him a scowl as I placed down the burger I had ordered that night. (Oh god. Did I ever fucking mention how heavenly their burgers were too!?)

All he did was shove a bunch of fucking salad in his mouth (it came with the burger) and then gave me the biggest (and I mean, so fucking big that I was actually fucking close to standing and punching it right off that shitty face of his) shit-eating grin.

“Baaaa.”

And god. I don’t even fucking care what kind of scene I made.

“Shut the fuck up, Jaeger!!!” I yelled back. This caught the attention of nearly fucking everyone. And when I mean everyone, I mean fucking _everyone_. And I only fucking realised when the whole general area went dead silent.

Holy fucking hell. It did not help that I was standing while flashing the shit-stain with a finger. I swear. I mother fucking swear, the shit-stain was going to fucking pay. I had never (like fucking ever) been so embarrassed in my fucking life!

Hanji’s laugh was the first to break the fucking silence which gave everyone the chance to start talking again. (Some of the stares I got given were enough to make me fucking shudder.) And even after everyone stopped staring (including Marco, who gave me a really worried glance) my cheeks (and my fucking neck and ears) were still red as fucking ever. I could only guess that it was Karma. It was because I wanked over Marco, wasn’t it?

It’s safe to say that rest of the evening went better. We saw a performance after dinner and hung around one of the bars (not the one Marco and I usually go to, but rather a different one that didn’t have a small dance floor) until it was time to call it a night around eleven. Armin had insisted that we get to bed around eleven. And honestly, I could not fucking blame him. A good sleep before a long as fucking day of walking sounded like the best idea ever.

And finally, for once I fell asleep again with a giant fucking grin on my face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m crossing my fingers that this chapter make sense.
> 
> Thank you very much to for-the-love-of-ereri and thegreatyurio for being my beta readers!
> 
> So uh... Raise of hands to all of those who saw this coming? It was really hard to decide what sexuality Marco was going to be. Marco is most of the time portrayed as the gay one in AUs and I really wanted to bend it and make him the unsure one. I didn’t want to make him full on straight, but aware of his attraction to men. So... I decided upon unsure!Marco. It’s a nice change in pace, I think. And for once Jean is open and proud of his gayness, haha. But now it’s out on the open and I’m sure everyone can tell where this is going to lead to! 
> 
> Next chapter they’re porting again! So, it’s going to be full of touristy stuff and not a lot of Marco.
> 
> Useless information: (Prices in NZD!) A room like Erwin’s would cost about $30k. A room like Jean’s group is about $6k for each person. While a room like Marco’s would be around $8k. But you know... take in consideration that this includes meals (except for two specialised restaurants) and majority of the activities on the cruise. All you’re paying extra for is any drinks (apart from water, juice and tea) specific activities (like getting your nails done) stuff you buy in the shops on the cruise, casinos and whatever you want to do at the ports. It seems expensive, but it’s actually a lot cheaper compared to travelling the normal way. Heck, the plane tickets alone would cost the sum in the end (and then you still have to find accommodation and food.)  
> A lot of cruises are much bigger/ offer more than the one that I’m setting this on. Like some cruises have real malls, heaps of spa pools, more theatre rooms, more activities like mini golf and flying foxes and etc. But the cruises which go around Australasia area only aren’t as big as the ones which travel the entire world, which kind of explains why it’s sort of cheaper than other cruiseliners.  
> In my experience, the cruise I went on was for ultimate relaxation and not too much to do with activities. (This also meant there weren’t that many kids on a cruise compared to what there normally is.) There were a couple of activities, but most people just relaxed all day and drank to their hearts content. And honestly, it was the best getaway from reality, ever.
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Choice – very good  
> Prick – asshole  
> Egg – replaces an offensive word  
> Rents – short for parents  
> Gelding – castrated horse. Normally a lot more tame  
> Sad one – hm... I’m pretty sure people know the meaning. It’s kind of hard to explain. I guess it could stand for ‘mean’ in this sense. It’s mostly used for disapproval.  
> All good – literally, ‘it’s all good’  
> Have a good one – literally, ‘have a good day/evening/whatever’


	11. Lombok

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the kudos, bookmarks and hits!!!
> 
> In this chapter they’re porting at Lombok, Indonesia! Lombok is an island east of Bali. It’s actually known as Bali’s little sister! I’ve never been but would love to! I don’t know if any of the stuff I’ll be writing about looks legit, but I’ve tried my best with the use of pictures since there was no option to street-view everything! So let’s see if I can do it justice! I’ll apologise in advanced if anyone has been there and I got major stuff wrong! So... for the most part, let’s pretend that this is real, okay?
> 
> The tour they’re doing is an actual tour! I don’t know much about Lombok, so I thought I’d take the easy way out and just follow a tour guide. There’s a bit of tweaking of the tour though, so it’s not that accurate.
> 
> So! Without further ado, sit back, relax and enjoy the trip to Lombok.

_Day 14  
_ _In which Jean explores Lombok._

* * *

Since the beginning of this cruise, I’ve learnt that eight in the morning isn’t nearly as bad as what six was. (Or better yet, four hours of sleep.) No, for once we all woke up at eight feeling mighty fine fucking refreshed. And thank fucking god we did because Tuesday (January 14th) was going to be one hell of a long day. (The tour was meant to last eight hours or some shit. If you ask me, that is one hell of a long fucking tour and I could already see all the walking we’d do.)

I’ll admit though, even I was fucking excited when the alarm went off. Sure, all the other ports that we’ve visited so far had me at least a little bit curious, but this one in particular was making me feel actually fucking excited. Today we were porting at Lombok. Apparently it was an island next to Bali or something. But hell, I didn’t really care for the location because, hell fucking yeah! Finally a port that wasn’t in my own fucking country!

Our tour was only to begin at like ten, I think, but we had to get off the ship by the latest nine-thirty. Only because the tender boat trip from the ship to the wharf was like half an hour. And knowing that nearly all the fucking passengers were going to race towards the ticketing area, we figured sooner we ate our breakfast, the sooner we could get our tickets.

Of course, Armin saved us a hell of a lot of trouble than probably majority of the fucking passengers. At the time when blondie had told us about all the ports and shit, he made mention that we should rather use cash while in Lombok (and when we we’re in kiwi-land) than credit cards or whatever. Why? Because apparently it was easier. And apparently credit cards were one hell of a fucking bad thing to carry around if we ran into a pickpocket or some shit. (I think he was just being an extra cautious little shit.)

So, before we left for breakfast we made sure we had enough of that Indonesia money that we exchanged before the trip. (I think it was called Rupiah or something. And thank fucking god we did, cause we ended up using it all) And enough water, sunblock and god knows what else. (And I made fucking sure I had a cap and decent shoes on. No way was I getting sunburnt or sore fucking feet!)

Breakfast was fucking lively as ever. I blame it on the fact that we were all excited to get off the ship and see something different. I mean fuck, I was so excited that I didn’t even scoff down nearly as many pastries as I normally would. (Obviously the day at port didn’t affect Sasha’s food habits. Holy fucking shit, she had like two fucking platefuls or whatever and went for thirds. How the hell did she even eat so much!?)

Armin spent majority of the yabbering off about the locations and flashing a map he kept out on the table. Honestly, I think Mikasa seemed like the only one who actually fucking cared and listened. (Hey, I don’t care if I was being a rude as fucking mate. I’d have to put up with it for the rest of the day. I’m sure as hell he didn’t mind me not caring for at least during breakfast.)

As predicted by Armin, the queue for the tickets to get off the ship was fucking huge. We spent nearly fucking twenty minutes long just to get a ticket. And then another fucking twenty before the call for us to get off was sounded.

And by some miracle (‘cause it was honestly a miracle) Armin had spotted Marco and his mates waiting too. After Marco had told me the previous day that we wouldn’t see each other, I didn’t really have any intention to look out for him. I figured they’d be the first ones to get off the ship, but apparently not. And dear lord, the way he smiled and waved was so fucking cute that I had to control every fucking muscle in my body not to walk on over to him. So, I just opted for another casual wave. Of course the blondie didn’t miss our exchange and by the looks of his face; I knew he was going to question me about what happened the previous day at some point. It was just a matter of when.

Trust me; the boat trip to the port wasn’t that much fucking better either. The humidity and cloudy skies only reminded me that we were obviously visiting this island in the wrong fucking season. For once I was looking forward to the dry heat that our next port would bring in a couple of days. I was just so fucking sick of the humidity. Being fucking wet constantly was a pain in the ass. And it did nothing but make the rough boat trip to the wharf even worse. (And by the looks of Mikasa’s green face, she wasn’t having any fucking fun either.)

But oh god, it was nice to fucking finally be on land again. And to see so many other people than the faces of the passengers that were surprisingly becoming familiar. As soon as we walked down the wharf and to the pickup area, we were fucking flocked by people.

And when I mean flocked, I mean, holy damn. There were so many fucking taxis, motorcycles and people asking if we wanted lifts. And obviously this shit was too much because before I knew it, Armin was holding onto my shirt for dear fucking life.

“That was fucking intense!” I wheezed once we were further away from the wharf and closer to the bus section.

“Hell yeah, man! I could hardly breathe,” Connie agreed, still holding onto Sasha’s hand. Obviously everyone had the same fucking idea when we went through the flock of people.

“Which one is ours, Armin?” Mikasa asked (I’m amazed she even sounded fucking normal. The greenesh tinge to her face made me fucking worried) once we reached a whole fucking line of buses. I shit you not; it was a whole row of just buses. (Or are these things called coachlines? Cause I have no fucking idea, Armin didn’t teach me this shit.)

“A white one with a green colouring to it, I believe,” Armin informed, holding out a pamphlet of the tour. (Seriously, where the fuck did he get all of this shit? Did he just somehow fucking acquire it or something!? Like where did all these maps and oh lord, you know what, never fucking mind.)

Obviously I was giving him one hell of a weird look because all he did was chuckle, “I picked it up at the reception desk.” That’s it. It’s fucking official. He can read my fucking mind.

I just ended up giving him a nod and followed the others as we walked down the row of buses to find something remotely green. And true to Armin’s words, we found one. It wasn’t hard to miss. Most of the other buses were white with variations of blues and yellows. But somehow we were lucky to have something fucking easy to spot. Hell yeah!

By the time we reached it, there were people already in the bus, which wasn’t a fucking surprise since there was only ten minutes to go until the tour would start. We were greeted by this woman with faint freckles and black hair outside of the bus and I couldn’t help but think of Marco at that moment. At least my thoughts of Marco didn’t last long before she interrupted.

“Welcome! My name is Ilse Langar and I’ll be your tour guide today,” she introduced.

Armin immediately got out the papers we needed and handed it over to her. She smiled at us and gave us some rubbery wrist bands to wear and keep. They were the same green as the bus and had their logo on it. I don’t even fucking know what it meant, it was in some strange language that they obviously spoke on the island or some shit.

Sasha and Connie were the first to run head-on into the bus and by the time Armin and I got on after the shit-stain (who was surprisingly quiet, if you ask me) and Mikasa, we both knew by the looks people were giving us that they weren’t too happy for having such an energetic couple on their bus. Not that I could blame them because fuck, match made in heaven just wouldn’t stop fucking talking for most of the trip. But dear god, the bus was air-conned and holy fuck, it only made this whole fucking day better. Hell yeah!

Armin took the window seat since I knew he’d be taking millions of fucking photos with that heavy as camera of his. But I didn’t really care because I still had one hell of a good view from my seat. And thankfully the seats were pretty huge too. At least it wasn’t as fucking cramped as the bus in Broome. Match made in heaven took the seats across the aisle from us while the shit-stain and his step-sister took the ones behind us.

Before the bus began to move, Ilse or whatever her name was, gave us an overview of all the places we’d visit (all of which went in one ear and out the next. But apparently the blondie found it super fucking interesting and noted it all down on his map) and what was unique for each. Honestly, all I fucking heard were two markets, two temples and some beach resort location.

“It’s such a shame that we’ll only see the west side of Lombok,” Armin commented once he handed me the map to hold. I just grunted, realising that he had a point. I figured it was because we were only here for a day and by the looks of the size of the island, there was no way in hell that we could see it fully in one fucking day.

“What’s Marco doing today?” He added as he turned on the camera.

“I think he said they’re seeing the Gili Islands,” I replied, taking out my cellphone from my backpack to see if I could get any reception. Obviously that was one fucking major stupid decision because why the hell would I get reception in a different fucking country? At least I could pick up wifi from the bus. Hell fucking yeah!

“Really!? That’s amazing. I’ll have to ask him how it went,” he answered excitedly. To be fucking honest, I had no idea what exactly was so ‘cool’ about the Gili Islands. Armin had shown us some stuff about it, but I wasn’t too fucking keen on it. It sounded more like island hopping than anything else.

“Are you meeting up with him tonight?”

“Nah, he said he’s having dinner late,” I sighed.

“Oh I see. You guys aren’t meeting up afterwards?” He looked at me curiously. Of course I knew the only reason Armin was curious as hell was because he wanted all the fucking information out of Marco about Gili Islands. But that was okay. At least the blondie was asking.

“Probably not, he said there’s another performance they’re seeing at eleven,” I sighed, leaning back onto the cushioning of the seat. And dear god. It was one fucking huge mistake. I should never have fucking done it because before I even knew it, the shit-stain was rubbing my fucking hair. What the fuck!?

“Baaaa. It sounds like your sheep doesn’t want to see you,” he laughed.

“Fuck you, Jaeger! He’s just busy, that’s all,” I growled, smacking his hand off my head. He whimpered slightly as he pulled his hand away and I couldn’t help but smirk at the idea that it probably hurt.

“That’s not nice, Eren. I’m sure Marco just has a lot planned. Why don’t we see the performance too?” Armin interrupted before the shit-stain could even make a fucking remark. Hell fucking yeah! Leave it to the fucking blondie to decide on something that great. At least this made it a hell of a lot easier for me.

“Sounds good,” Mikasa agreed from her window seat. “Do you know what’s playing?”

Before Armin could even reply Ilse interrupted with, “We’re going to start the tour now.”

 

-

 

The ride to our first location was close to the capitol called Mataram. It was called Sesela and it was an art village where they had markets and stuff. (Apparently the small village was north of the capitol or maybe it was part of...? You know what, I don’t even fucking know!) And honestly, I was kind of looking forward to it. But not as much as the next one that we’d be going to. (Ilse mentioned that we’d be doing a special painting of wooden masks in the next village and that only got my fucking blood pumped. Hell yeah! That sounded like fucking fun.)

The ride there was a fucking shock though. The roads weren’t exactly paved and there weren’t that many fucking cars. (Which were taxis most of the time, by the looks of it?) Instead motorcycles and pony carts were more popular and it actually looked like a hell of a lot of fun to ride them. It felt and looked so fucking weird though. (And honestly, the whole day felt so surreal. It was so fucking different to experience such a cultural setback. And it was almost like what Ilse told us constantly, it was like going back in time.)

The areas we drove by were basically just a bunch of green land. (And holy damn were they green. I swear, I haven’t seen so much green fucking land in ages) The odd section looked to be for growing some stuff. And I’m pretty sure we passed a couple of rice fields along the way. (It was fucking crazy though because they were on hills. What the fuck? Did they normally grow rice like this!?) Of course, I couldn’t have asked Armin since the camera was that much more fucking important.

The capitol was a shocker too. It was nothing that any of us have ever fucking seen before. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was busy but it was so... unlike anything. Like whoa. I don’t know, it wasn’t as civilised or clean or... I can’t even fucking put it to words. It was such a weird experience. I mean, it was interesting but really weird. (Okay, here’s the truth: it was nothing like fucking Aus.)

And true to Ilse’s words we stopped by a small village with mostly dirt roads except for a strip of markets and a huge building. (That apparently had all the art markets) She had told us we had half an hour to look around until we needed to find the bus again. And as soon as those words left her mouth, Armin was out of that fucking bus with my wrist in his hand. Hell, I didn’t even have fucking time to pull on my backpack properly. Even fucking worse, I banged my knee some fucking how.

“This is so amazing!” He exclaimed in awe, looking down the street.

Honestly, it was fucking amazing. And thankfully I had enough time to look at the street too before the rest of the group joined us.

“Let’s check inside,” Armin suggested once we started walking down the street. Thankfully the walk was short because I was getting really fucking dizzy with all the movement in the street. The motion of the boat was still fucking there and with the humidity in the air, it was making my stomach turn just a little bit. It didn’t help that we had one crazy as fucking bus driver who didn’t know there was such a thing as a brake pedal.

“Do you think they have food in there?” Sasha asked as we filed towards the entrance. I couldn’t help but snort at her comment. Leave it to fucking Sasha to ask for food even though we ate like two hours ago.

“Sash, it’s an art market, not a food market,” Connie sighed. I’m pretty sure I heard him patting her back from behind us.

“No, I’m pretty sure there will be a small food sta-,” Armin’s words fell silently. And I honestly didn’t get why until I finally looked ahead into the large area. (It looked pretty much like a mall with stalls along the way) Holy fuck. Even I was fucking gobsmacked at the whole fucking building. Not only was there fucking hundreds of people in the area but the things that were in the shops (and on the stall tables) were as fucking cultural as hell.

It was almost fucking weird. But it was pretty cool at the same time. Holy fucking shit. It almost reminded me of this giant fucking traditional art flea market.

It didn’t help that I was dragged into almost every fucking shop by Armin. Of course the others all followed behind too. Well, except for Sasha. She was fucking freaking out almost as much as the blondie. (And never made mention of food again, surprisingly.)

I’ll admit it was pretty interesting. Some of the stuff the locals made was so.... _out there_? (I have no fucking idea how to even explain it.) This one shop we went into had hundreds of wooden pots and bowls. (I think they were wooden. They looked fucking wooden.) Except they were all painted these weird as textures and colours. There were these sculptures and masks in some of the shops and stalls and they were fucking impressive! (It only made me that much more eager to paint our own at the next village.)

There were a couple of other stores that had these woven baskets and bags. Armin yabbered my ears off about what they were (a shrub or some shit) and the process of how they made it. (Apparently the blondie had done his research, not that it surprised me.) And just for the sake of it, I decided to buy something. This place already had me in fucking awe at how cultural and unreal it was that I had to at least buy something for my parents. In the end I had bought a woven bag for my mum; since I knew she’d fucking appreciate it. (Hey, I had to be a good son. So far I barely had gotten anything for my parents. They paid for most of this trip, so I had to give something back, right?)

Okay, I’ll just fucking admit it; I was super keen to buy Marco something. Maybe it was because Armin had bought the blond-stud something last time. Or maybe it was because I knew Marco wasn’t going to seeing these areas. And like the fucking blondie read my mind or some shit, he just had to stand beside me while looking at small wooden figurines of the temple we’d be visiting later on the day.

“Are you going to get Marco anything?” He asked softly. And thank fucking god he was being considerate. The shit-stain was in the area and I could only fucking hope that he didn’t over hear what Armin had said.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged.

“I think you should get something for him,” he replied, picking up one of the temple figurines.

“Ya reckon? Wouldn’t it be too lame?”

“No. I’m getting Erwin something,” he giggled.

In the end I went for it. Marco wasn’t going to visit any of the famous temples in Lombok, so why the fuck not? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a mini figurine of a fucking tower from the temple grounds. Man, I was becoming such a fucking sap. Normally I wouldn’t have thought of buying anyone anything. And yet, there I was buying something for a guy I liked and barely even fucking knew.

Amazingly enough I wasn’t the only one who bought stuff with the money we had. Armin probably did the most buying though. (I’m fucking sure that he spent the most money out of all of us out of the whole trip) The only thing that fucking annoyed me was that I became the fucking pack rat for all his gifts. Blondie just fucking shoved most of his bags onto me while he did all the fucking buying and exploring. I was just hoping to god that we could leave this stuff in the bus at the other locations.

There was a giant grass area outside the indoor market that had a couple more stalls and a giant marked off area. Apparently activities and performances were held there, but obviously we came at the wrong fucking time. Instead, we opted to watch for like five minutes these women weaving bags. (Kind of similar to the one I bought) I guess only after watching them to their work was when I was fucking glad I bought one. That shit looked hard as to make.

“Isn’t this just so unbelievable?” Armin mused as we all watched the women do their work. “It’s so amazing how they learnt to make things like this.”

“Definitely! It feels like we’ve stepped into another world or something,” Sasha agreed as she jumped and bumped my shoulder.

“We’re in a different country,” Mikasa corrected from beside Armin. “Of course it’s going to be different.”

“Yeah but I didn’t expect it to be _this_ different,” Sasha replied in sing-song.

“That’s why people come here, Sasha. To experience this kind of culture,” Armin reassured. That was fucking obvious. I had no idea what I even fucking expected from this island. But all this traditional stuff was seriously not it.

“Well, I’m glad that we get to see it. I definitely can’t wait for the temples,” Sasha ended. And holy fuck was she fucking right.

 

-

 

The next market was a decent half an hour drives away. And thankfully Ilse had told us we could keep our gifts in the bus since it’d be locked up and waiting for us in within the hour we’d be in at the next stop.

Anyway, so yeah, we had an hour to waste in this little village. It was almost the same as the one we went to before. Only some of the roads were paved and I couldn’t help but scoff at the idea of how dirty some of the alleyways were. But hey, this was an island; I couldn’t exactly hope that it’d be clean as hell.

Everyone on the bus (I swear, there were fucking heaps of people. I’m pretty sure we were a total of fucking forty or some shit) was guided by Ilse to this one place that sold so many fucking wooden masks. And holy damn, they were amazing while some were creepy as. I had seen some masks at the previous market, but they weren’t as fucking awesome as the ones the shop had. But for the most part I was just fucking pumped to get on with what we’d do next, aka, painting out own.

We were lead into this giant room with wooden masks on these wooden tables. Even the fucking chairs were these long wooden benches. (And too fucking bad that they were painful as fuck to sit on. Didn’t they think tourists wanted something soft to sit on instead?) We opted to sit in the second row from the small lifted area since it was nice and close. Along with the marks on the tables, there were paints and some photo references that I assumed we’d need to look at.

After a while a couple of blokes had walked onto the lifted area and started to explain the history of the wooden masks. Apparently they were made out of something called _cukli_. And honestly, I didn’t get a single fucking thing about how it was made and carved. Apparently the masks were normally longer and painted with special traditional paints, but since this was just a tourist activity, so we got the cheap stuff.

It was still a hell lot of fucking fun anyway. Our masks were a variety of colours but mine and the shit-stain’s were surprisingly darker than what the others had. Armin’s mask was pretty light in colour, but it suited him well.

Painting it was a real fucking mission and a half. I thought it was going to fucking great, but what was I even fucking expecting? Luck was never on my fucking side and neither was painting skills. Fuck, I always sucked at art classes, so I basically knew straight away that I’d fucking fail at this in the end. So, I opted to just painting on wavy white lines and triangular shit on mine. And I was having a fucking swell time until the shit-stain called out to Armin and me.

“Armin! Jean!” Eren called from the end of our group. Thankfully the shit-stain had decided to sit at the other end of our group and nowhere near us. (Mikasa was the one who shoved him to the end and it was fucking hilarious when she did.) I could just imagine what a fucking paint war we’d have by the end of the class.

I quickly flashed my head towards him only to fucking snort at the sight of the shit-stain. He was holding up his mask to his face and holy fucking shit. It was fucking hilarious! Green was painted around the holes for the eyes (so you could see) and a small green moustache under the hole for the mouth. Hell, even the orange tinted eyebrows were a fucking eyesore! But the thing that fucking completed the whole mask was the drawn feathers on the forehead.

“Ooga Booga!” He called out, wiggling his free hand.

All it did was make me fucking bark out with laughter. I was laughing so fucking hard that I was nearly crying. Even Armin was howling with laughter as he recognised the mask. Man, we were fucking laughing for so long that even the people in front of us turned around to see what was up. And I swear, I saw a couple of them laugh too.

Surprisingly enough the shit-stain’s was actually the fucking best out of all of us. (Too bad the men who walked around to help were pretty pissed off when they saw what he painted on it) But holy fuck, his was both hilarious and fucking ace! I had to hand it to the shit-stain; he did some of the craziest shit at times that somehow ended up great. Hell, I liked his idea so much I decided to draw a cartoon bone on the top of my mask too.

The others were much better than mine. Armin’s was surprisingly artistic and almost looked like some of the example pictures we had shared between us. And I couldn’t help but notice how he constantly pouted as he tried to figure out what to do next. God, he still looked so fucking cute when he concentrated on stuff. Eventually he caught me staring and sent me a surprisingly giant smile before he went back to work.

After spending half an hour painting and drying our masks, we all decided to head out and down the street to the other market the village had. We still had another half an hour to waste and looking at more traditional crafts (just a whole bunch of wooden stuff again) was apparently the best thing to do for a while. Well, that was until Connie decided to speak up.

“Anyone ready for lunch? I could seriously use a lunch break,” he suggested.

“We probably should. We won’t be able to eat again until the beach stop,” Armin affirmed. “Let’s check out some of the restaurants.”

Thank fucking god that finding one wasn’t hard. I mean, why the fuck would it have been? The street that we had been on had a quite a lot of eating places with seating outside. So, we decided to head to one of the busiest ones since we had no fucking idea what would be good or not.

But seriously, holy fucking shit. The food they offered was fucking great. Satay sticks, rice dishes, stir-fry dishes. Just... fuck! It was fucking ace! And by the looks of all the other people in the restaurant, it tasted fucking good. In the end we all ordered our own meals (and drinks because holy fuck it was still hot and humid) with a giant plate of beef satay sticks to share. (There were options for fucking lamb and of course the shit-stain had to fucking ‘baa’ when he read it out loud.)

I went for something called nasi goreng. God, now that was a fucking hard thing to pronounce. Thank fucking god the chick (who was such a hottie) that was serving us was use to idiotic tourists like me. (At least I made her fucking giggle when I tried to pronounce it. If you ask me, I had scored well.)

“Ahh, it feels so good to sit down with this breeze,” Connie sighed as he stretched while we waited for our food.

“The wind is fucking heaven compared to the humidity,” I added, sitting back into the not so comfortable fucking chair.

“I can’t wait for the beach, it’s going to be so nice,” Sasha mumbled as she leaned her forehead against Connie.  “Armin, we’ll be able to swim in it, right?”    

“Of course. We’ll be there for a nearly two hours,” he confirmed.

“Then let’s swim, Armin. Last time we couldn’t,” Eren suggested. Armin just nodded, eyeing me warily.

I just snorted and ran a hand through my sweaty as hair, “Don’t give me that look. I won’t throw sand this time unless you do.”

“You better not drop him either,” Mikasa chided.

“That was an accident. I fucking swear, I felt a jellyfish,” I protested.

“You’re such a wuss, horse-face,” the shit-stain teased. That fucking grin of his was what made immediately snap back at him.

“You’re the one to talk, Jaeger. You weren’t even in that fucking water waist deep.”

“No fighting, please!” Mikasa scowled, shaking the shit-stain’s shoulder before he could even make a comeback. I just sent him my own shit-eating grin. Oh lord, that growl he gave me was fucking glorious. Thank fucking god for Mikasa.

“Then let’s make a deal,” he eventually spoke again after Mikasa fell into a conversation with Sasha.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? I don’t mind deals with you, Jaeger,” I scoffed, taking a sip of the coke I had ordered.

“Hear me out, man,” he continued. “You know how Armin told us that there are eels at the one temple we’re visiting?”

“You mean the Lingsar one?” Connie interjected.

Eren snapped his fingers and sent Connie a thumbs up before he carried on to say, “Right, that. So here’s what I think. If you can stick your fugly feet in there, then I’ll stop teasing you about Marco being a sheepshagger.”

All the while I was watching him skeptically as he explained. And I couldn’t help but actually be fucking interested. Hell, if it meant that he’d stop fucking bugging me about it, then why the hell not? They were just fucking eels, right? I just had to put feet my feet into the water, yeah? It couldn’t be that fucking hard!

I narrowed my eyes before I asked, “Why?” I just wanted to make sure he had good intentions, that’s all. (But seriously, who was I even fucking kidding? Jaeger never had good fucking intentions when it came to making a deal with me.)

“Man, you’d be crazy to even put your feet in there. You’d deserve it if you did,” he reassured.

And for some fucking reason (fucking god I wish I never agreed to this shitty deal) I ended up agreeing, “Deal.”

Armin was obviously listening in the whole time and as soon as the shit-stain and I agreed on it, he groaned and rubbed his finger tips against his sweaty temples.

“Why did Mikasa and I agree to bring you two along again?”

 “Cause we make the trip much fucking better,” the shit-stain offered. I swear, the laugh that came out of Armin’s mouth was the fucking scariest thing I had ever fucking heard from him. (And holy fucking damn was he at it. He laughed so fucking much that he even went red in the face.)

Our food came not too long after and my god. What was there to even fucking say? It was so good. Nasi goreng turned out to be fried rice with some vegetables and a fried egg, but holy damn was it so fucking good. Hell, even the beef satay sticks were fucking drool-worthy. And thankfully we ordered heaps of those because Sasha was fucking scoffing them down like a mad woman. It’s safe to say that I had a decent amount myself. Give or take eight of them. Hell yeah!

 

-

 

At one in the afternoon we had reached the first temple. Well, it wasn’t exactly a temple; it was more like a ‘water palace.’ Narmada Summer Palace, I think it was called? And holy damn, was it something fucking else. Aside from the fact that it was probably a little run down, it was still fucking cool.

There was this giant square pool with a mini fountain in the middle. (Seriously this one was super green. Like it was never fucking cleaned or something) There was a paved walkway around it so you could sit if you wanted to. To the right of it was more fucking pools, but these were a lot bluer than the green looking one. But, holy hell was the view fucking amazing. To the north of the main pool were these giant as square terraces (with steps and trees) that lead to this really old looking temple.

Honestly, this time I actually understood why the blondie was freaking out so much. (The place looking fucking ace!) As soon as we walked to the central pool, he was freaking the shit out. Hell, he even shoved that heavy as camera onto me and begged for pictures. All I could do was agree because holy damn, it had hell good scenery.

Before we sat down around the large pool, we quickly walked up heaps of fucking stairs to the temple. Armin had no idea whether or not we could take photos inside the temple, so he decided to respect whatever history was behind it and not take any. (Now that was a fucking miracle because I was expecting him to take fucking heaps.) Then again, he did get me to take a picture of him outside of it, which turned out to be one hell of a good shot. Seriously though, the temple creeped the living shits out of me. To know how fucking old it was made me fucking thankful that I didn’t have to take any pictures inside it.

But as old as it was, it was even more surprising how well they kept the gardens and pools up to standards. Hell, even I actually liked them! (And I never fucking like gardens and shit like this.)  

We only had half an hour at the water palace until we had to go to the biggest one of them all.  By two in the afternoon we had reached it. Pura Lingsar, I think it was called. And holy fucking sh- Okay, I really shouldn’t swear while talking about this place. Let’s see how long it lasts until I swear, okay?

So anyway, it was a giant as place. Most of it was brick but it was so... _amazing_. Through these giant red and grey brick walls and a long walk down a walkway of concrete and trees, there was this massive area with trees and three giant towers in different sections. Actually, there were heaps of sections you could visit, depending on what you wanted to see.

And the craziest thing was, it was so quiet and amazing. Absolutely amazing. Even I was gobsmacked at how grand this place looked. Heck, Armin’s camera was going off a million pictures a second and I could not blame him for it. The stairs and the small pools and the trees were all so ace and soothing.

Ilse explained to us that the temple was the only place that welcomed all religions. She gave us an overview of the place before pointing us in the right direction to the different areas. Of course, Armin wanted to check inside all the temples, so we had to pay extra.

And when I mean extra, I mean we had to rent this cloth to wrap around our waists. Mine was this blue and white checkered one and honestly, it was awesome. Thankfully the blondie wasn’t allowed to take photos inside of the temples, but it was still pretty interesting and had the strangest calming effect. I’ve never been religious or spiritual, but this was just beyond words.

I’ve never been to a temple before and honestly, I sure as he-, um, I didn’t feel this calm and content at the water (wait, summer!) palace. But this place was just something else. It was actually, dare I say it, beautiful.

After the blondie and I did our rounds inside the temples, (and posing outside next to the concrete statues like dip-, uh... idiots. No one could blame us, they had cloths and headbands on them) we gave back the rented cloths and found the rest of our group on the grounds a little south of the middle section. Surprisingly enough they were all holding boiled eggs and that only made me curious.

“What are those for?” Armin had asked before I could.

“We’re going to feed the freshwater eels on the southern end with the priest!” Sasha exclaimed (and dear go-, I mean, dear gosh, she was so loud! Didn’t she realise how quiet and peaceful it was in the courtyard areas!?

Of course Eren gave me a knowingly smile only to remind me of the deal we had. And while I was still keen as ever to do it, I was suddenly thinking twice. And do you want to know why? Like honest to gosh why?

Because these flippin’ pools were not normal pools! No! They were mother fucking holy water pools and these fucking eels were _holy_. And there was even a fucking bird statue looking over it. Fuck no! And no fucking way was I going to give myself fucking more bad luck by disrespecting fucking religions and ruin the peace!

_Shit._ I swore. Fuck. Fuck it all!

But that shit-stain. That _deal_. It was too good to be fucking true. And I was still so tempted to go through with it. I was actually fucking contemplating it while the priest lured all the eels up in the clear water. Hell, even when people started tossing in the boiled eggs was I still thinking about it.

Was it seriously worth it? Was it really worth just to stop the shit-stain from taunting me? Of fucking course it wasn’t! Why the fuck would it be!? It was such a stupid fucking idea. That fucking shithead knew this didn’t he!?

“Armin, I don’t think I’m going to do it,” I mumbled to him as we stood at the rim of the pool. Honestly, for the first time that I’ve known Jaeger, this was the one and only time that I may have not gone through a deal.

“I think that’d be best, don’t you?” Armin reassured, patting my shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll get over teasing you after a while.”

“I just don’t want to become unluckier,” I groaned, rubbing the sweat off my face.

“Are you wussing out, horse-face?” The shit-stain taunted. It actually fucking startled me because I swear to god he wasn’t there before.

“I can’t do this, Jaeger. You know that,” I hissed, crossing my arms and keeping my head down towards the eels.

“Eren, be serious about this. Not only can Jean get in trouble, but we could  possibly get locked up,” Armin reasoned.

“You mean, _Jean_ will get locked up, not us,” the shit-stain corrected. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

I think Armin probably sent him a scowl or some shit because all he did was release one hell of a loud sigh, slapped my other shoulder and walked away.

“I’m still going to tease you, horse-face,” he called after.

“You did the right thing, don’t worry,” Armin reassured, resting his hand on my shoulder.

Like hell I knew I did the right thing. I could take the shit-stain’s taunting any fucking day. But there was no fucking way that I was going to climb into _holy water_. Hell no! I may be a fucking cocky and cynical bloke, but I don’t fucking dare to stoop that low.

Now when I look back on it, maybe it was for the better. I was being the better bloke while the shit-stain was still being his immature self. And maybe this was the first step I took to righting myself out. It was the first time I’ve willingly lost a deal to the shithead, but for some fucking reason I felt mighty proud. Either it was because of the calming effect fucking temple gave or because I knew it was the right _thing_ to do.

(Or maybe I was still betting on the fact that he owed me ten fucking bucks.)

 

-

 

In the end we had left two-thirty and headed straight to some place called Senggigi Beach. The only disappointing thing was that it took like nearly a fucking hour to get there. And the fact that it took such a long fucking time to get there was surprising as hell. The speed the fucking driver was going at was fucking frightening and it didn’t help that the road wasn’t even fucking paved.

This time blondie and I changed seats with the match made in heaven so we could sit on the left side of the bus, only because we’d get one hell of a good view of the shoreline. (How fucking nice of them, shit!) Of course, this meant we missed the good view of the giant as fucking volcano that was on the northern end of Lombok, but I highly doubted it beat the view of the sea. (Or the scary as fucking cliff we were driving by.)

For the most part of the hour ride, Armin was quiet while he still had his ‘photography’ mode checked on. I took this time to make use of the free wifi on the bus and checked my emails. Apparently we were going to be at sea for three whole fucking days before we’d port again. And that was one hell of a long fucking time. (Mikasa obviously thought that too because every time we were even in this fucking bus, she was on her phone if she wasn’t taking photos of her own.)

During our lunch Armin spoke about what we could do on the ship for the next three days, but none of us really agreed to anything. For the following day, all of them already had shit planned: so far the blondie had that wine tasting thing with the blond-stud and his mates at some point. The shit-stain and Mikasa was going to do some random spa shit that I didn’t know about. (Seriously, why the fuck would the shit-stain even do stuff like that!?) While Connie and Sasha booked some sort of dance class, which only meant I was going to be a fucking loner for a good two hours while Armin was busy.  

I mean sure, I could easily waste two hours on the secluded deck while I waited for blondie and the blond-stud to finish their wine tasting shit. But something told me I should leave them be for a while longer. I guess I could always try and find Marco. Only problem is, I would probably fucking waste those two hours just trying to find him. Shit. I was fucking screwed, wasn’t I? For once I’d actually be a fucking loner on the ship. Fucking shit.

Armin’s huff interrupted my internal turmoil as he leaned back into the seating and turned his camera off. I couldn’t help but eye him curiously as he sent me a small smile.

“Camera is a bit heavy,” he explained, rubbing his arms gently.

“You’ve never realised, dipshit?” I snorted.

“It’s been a hectic day so far,” he countered. I just nodded a reply before looking at my phone again. The silence lingered on for a while longer until I realised in the corner of my eye that he was watching me.

I quirked my brow, still looking at my phone when I asked, “What?”

“Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?”

“Hah?” I blurted out, finally taking my eyes off the screen only to eye him in question.

“Did you sort things out with Marco?” He asked. Oh. Right. I guess now was the best fucking time to explain whatever happened between us. Knowing that Armin was right about Marco’s sexuality only made me realise that if I told him the truth, it might make his fucking ego shoot through the sky. But fuck, like I could avoid that. Armin has been such a good fucking mate. The least I could do was tell him the truth.

“You were right. He’s pretty close to being closet gay,” I admitted. Armin must have found that great fucking news because before I knew it he was beaming this fucking huge smile at me.

“I knew it!” He exclaimed and only a little while later did he question the other part of my reply. “What do you been by ‘pretty close’?”

“He said he’s only out to his mates and apparently the public. But if you ask me, I think he’s only out to his mates,” I explained. “Fuck. I really don’t get how you saw it, man.”

“It was just a hunch,” he quickly blurted out. My eyes widened at his sudden reply. “The thing that gave it away was how much he was blushing around you.”

“That still doesn’t make any fucking sense, Armin,” I replied, quirking a brow.

“Of course it would for you,” he giggled. “You were so intent on getting his attention that you didn’t realise that he already fell for you.”

I grunted a reply because there was no other way to continue. He had a fucking point. I was too fucking blind in the end to even realise it. And if Armin had caught onto it, I had no fucking doubt that so many others did too.

“He’s a virgin you know,” I added. “Never had a boyfriend either.”

“So? You were the same,” Armin countered quickly before murmuring, “And I was too.”

“Yeah but you knew what to do. I don’t even know where to fucking begin with him,” I confessed. Because that was the fucking truth. Sure, Armin has taught me fucking wonders about the gay life, but I was still fucking clueless when it came to being the only non-virgin in the relationship. Okay fine, I may have been fucking excited the previous night about working on his inexperienced body. But I was too fucking horny to think rationally. Wouldn’t it be fucking awkward for him at first?

“Do what we did. Use what I’ve taught you and what you’ve done to other guys. I’m sure you’ll win him over eventually.”

I laughed quietly at that. “Armin, we fucked by the end of our first week together. I don’t think Marco wants that.”

“Jean, we were fifteen and horny as ever. You’re now eighteen and can at least keep it in your pants. I’m sure you have the self control to take it slow. Just lure him in. Be seductive. I don’t know; flirt with him until he caves.” Dear lord. Was Armin giving me his fucking pro tips again? Hell fucking yeah!

“So what? Are you doing that to your blond-stud?” I questioned, chuckling a bit when his cheeks suddenly grew red.

“N-no,” he stuttered.

“Whatever, man. But alright, thanks. I’ll try it,” I nodded.

“Be gentle at first, okay? He seems too kind and maybe a bit innocent.”

As soon as Armin finished his sentence a bark of laughter found my lips. Holy fucking shit. Sure, Marco was kind as fucking hell. But holy damn. I don’t even fucking know if he was innocent or not. The fact that he could snap and fucking be a snarky little shit at times only told me that he probably had some fucking devious shit going on in that head of his. (You know what, not his head, more like those fucking tight as jeans.)  But even that thought seemed out of fucking character for him. So maybe Armin was right. (I was just so fucking ready to find out whether he was or not.)

After our conversation about Marco, Armin decided to change the topic. And I was kind of fucking thankful for it. At least his idle chatter was informative (holy shit a fucking huge word there) about all the things happening in the next couple of nights on the ship that we could go watch with our beauts. Obviously the blonde was still reading the fucking pamphlets that Gunther constantly left in the cabin. I gave up on that shit ages ago. (Did I ever make mention of them? We had weekly and daily ones. I only ever read the pamphlet on the first day, but normally they had a list of activities and performances in them for the day. And I guess maybe I should have been a smart fucking bloke and actually read them, especially for the following day.)

Anyway, at three-fifteen or something we had reached the beach area. Wait correction; the fucking resort by the beach.

And holy fucking shit was it a resort.

Holy fucking hell. It was huge. And when I mean huge, I mean fucking huge. They had a normal hotel building, smaller villas and even other shit like a tennis court and everything! All the villas and shit were built around a whole bunch of palm trees and green grass. Now this, my fucking readers, was luxury. This fucking spelt out ultimate summer vacation.

Well, that was until we got the swimming pool and restaurant area. I think every fucking one was stunned to silence once we reached it. Hell, I sure as hell was. Armin was fucking taking millions of photos and even Mikasa was at it.

There was this giant as fucking pool that looked over the beach in the short distance. The pool even had a mini thatch roof hut near the middle. (Oh dear fucking lord it was a bar!!!) And holy fuck. The palm trees. The mother fucking palm trees, picnic tables, umbrellas and even fucking the deck chairs and...

All I could fucking mutter was, “This looks like a screensaver or some shit.”

“You got that fucking right, Jean,” Connie agreed. Everyone else was too gobsmacked to even say anything else.

Ilse guided us towards this huge covered up square shaped gazebo thing (I don’t even fucking know what it’s called) that was a couple of metres away from the pool area. (And holy shit it also looked over the beach in the distance.) There was a small band somewhere nearby that played music and dear god. Holy fucking shit. It was perfect. Maybe even more perfect than the fucking ship!

“Next up is the buffet. Once you’ve eaten to your heart’s content, feel free to make use of the swimming pool, or follow the short path down bellow towards private section of Senggigi Beach. Please remember, we will be meeting at the bus again at five,” she explained.

Now that sounded fucking heavenly. And dear lord was it. We all dug in straight into the buffet food. I went for nearly ever fucking option they had. Hell, even the fucking chicken curry was mouth watering.

And the funniest thing was, Sasha wasn’t the only one who had like three fucking plates full of food. I think we all had like four plate before we even got to the dessert and ice cream. (Who the hell says no to ice cream!?)

After we were fucking stuffed from the buffet, we agreed to head down to the beach (but first to the bathroom to get into our bathers) for a little while before swimming. (Or else I would have fucking chundered everything up) We only had two backpacks between all of us, since none of us really wanted to care that much for it while we swam. (We left the rest in the bus, luckily.)

And holy damn was the beach one hell of a good fucking sight. That water. Dare I fucking say it; it was even fucking better than Broome’s. The sand was so fucking white and water was so blue and clear. Holy fucking shit! The area we were in didn’t have much waves, but I didn’t even fucking care, I was just so fucking ready to get in there and actually fucking swim!

After applying sunblock with Armin and placing away our stuff safely with Mikasa (she was the first one to offer to watch our shit) we fucking _ran_ to the water.

And lord. Oh fucking god. Was that water fucking good. A little cold, but so fucking good compared to the humidity and cloudy sky. (Oh fuck, if only it was sunny. Then it would have been even more fucking perfect.)

I swam for a decent forty minutes, I think, in the sea until my arms and legs started to fucking kill me.

“I’m going to head to the pool,” I declared before heading back to the shoreline where this time Sasha was relaxing at.

“Do ya’ reckon you can take the bags with you?” Connie called after me.

“Whatever!” I agreed. I thought at first that I was the only one who was going to head back but before I knew it Armin was swimming with me towards the shore. By the time we reached Sasha, she fucking ran back into the water for another swim. She didn’t even ask if her watching time was up. She just jumped up and ran like a crazy woman.

Armin and I stopped by the two shower stalls by the walkway area that separated the resort and beach. The water was so fucking cold, but it didn’t matter. It was so good compared to the humidity that still clung to the air.

By some miracle we found two spare deck chairs around the pool and under a single umbrella. Armin went straight to the deck chairs (they even had fucking mattresses on them) while I first headed for a small dip in the pool to wash off any extra sand. (Okay, I know that it was a fucking terrible thing to do, but shit! I’d rather dirty a fucking pool than sit for an hour in a bus with fucking sand in my boardies and around my balls.)

Eventually I joined the blondie on the padded deckchair after buying fruity cocktails for each of us. He just hummed a thank you before he tilted his head to the other direction for another snooze. I made sure to set the alarm clock for ten to five (because there was no way in fucking hell that we were going to miss the bus) before finding a good position to lie in.

And if I had to be fucking honest, I’d say this was the best part of the day. Nothing could have been more fucking perfect than laying by the swimming pool with music in the air, rocking of the non-existent ship, the waves in the distance and smell of sunblock. Ah. Definitely nothing could have been more fucking perfect. (Okay, maybe if Marco was here, it would have been better.)

 

-

 

The bus ride back down to Lembar or whatever the fucking wharf town was called was long and tiresome. I was mostly in that strange state of being half asleep and half awake, only because every time I finally had the chance to doze off, the hairs of Armin’s head would tickle my nose. For some fucking reason he thought it was okay to fall asleep on my shoulder almost instantly as we got into the bus. But I didn’t really care. Everyone was pretty much just as fucking tired.

Thankfully (‘cause holy shit we had so many fucking bags of souvenirs) we didn’t have to wait long for a tender boat to take us back to the ship just after six. The sun was already starting to set and I could already tell that the porting of the ship at seven was going to be in almost darkness.  By then we were all fucking awake since the seas were pretty fucking rough. (Luckily they had barf bags for poor fucking Mikasa. Fortunately she didn’t end up using it.) Somehow during our trip back to the wharf it began to rain but thankfully by the time we were on the tender boat, it was only a light drizzle. But god, the rain was like a major fucking relief. At least it got rid of some of the humidity.

And this was the strangest fucking thing. As soon as I got back on the ship, I felt like I was on fucking land again. It was like the motion my fucking body had gotten used to suddenly thought the motion of the cruise ship was basically the same and made me feel like I was back on land. (Did that even make any fucking sense?) It was fucking trippy as hell! And after asking the rest of my mates about it, they all agreed they felt the same.

Through the whole trip from the tender boat to my cabin, not a single Marco or Marco’s mate was in sight. And maybe I was just a little fucking disappointed even though I knew I wouldn’t see him around today. And somehow it only made me that much more fucking eager to somehow see him the following day.

Armin and Mikasa were (again, shit!) the only ones that went up to Deck 14 to see the porting while the rest of us decided to fight for the showers. Well, I fucking ran into it first. I was feeling especially fucking sticky and sweaty and I was so ready to get into clean clothes before lying on my fresh sheets that were on the bed.  

Eventually Armin joined us just after seven and went for his own shower after Connie, the shit-stain and I was done. And rather than staying inside the cabin and catching a twenty minute snooze, the shit-stain thought it would be one hell of a grand fucking idea to get a beer from one of the bars on Deck 7. And god was that beer fucking good. I made sure to saviour it all the way until dinner time at eight.

Dinner was the same as always, which is why I can almost skip this whole fucking part. Shit-stain was yabbering off the agro-man’s ear. Mikasa and I were talking to Mike and Hanji while Erwin and Armin were constantly raising the tension of the whole fucking table by their hand fiddles under the table.

The only difference was this time Hanji was constantly yabbering to all of us about all the great sights they saw. (Armin and I spoke about ours too.) The other difference was, at first there were other people sitting at Marco’s table. And the strangest fucking thing was, it left me feeling so fucking uneasy. Somehow I had grown used to seeing Marco and the lanky as bloke whenever I looked up. But instead that night all I saw was a fucking scowl of the same chick that shared the tree with us in Darwin. At least the small blonde chick was nice enough to smile if she did catch me staring. (Thankfully they weren’t there for the whole time we were.) At some point even the blond-stud asked where they were. Of course my answer was that they were having dinner later. That only led to Armin inviting the blond-stud to seeing the performance with us at eleven. And what a big fucking surprise; he said yes and so happened to ask all his mates to tag along too.

After dinner we headed towards the bar Marco and I had met up at twice and decided to waste the evening by ordering more drinks and just chatting amongst ourselves once Connie and Sasha arrived. I tried not to feel too disappointed in not seeing Marco. (And it didn’t fucking help that we were at _our_ bar with Eld working as the bartender.) So, I opted to smile as much as I normally did and pester Armin until he shot me a warning glare. So I ended up leaving the two love-blonds and wormed my way into some conversation Mike was having with Connie. Fuck, it was a better decision than joining in on the shit-stain and Hanji’s. I could only imagine how much he fucking would taunt me if I came near him.

And that’s how we spent our time until eleven. Okay, not exactly to eleven, more like half past ten. We had headed to the theatre a little earlier to get a good seat on the upper deck since this was going to be apparently one hell of a fucking musical performance.

As soon as people started to file into the two leveled theatre, I immediately began scanning for Marco like a fucking hawk. It was only closer to the eleven mark that I finally had fucking spotted him. And oh dear fucking god. I felt like fucking celebrating. It was so good to see him again even if he was on the other fucking side of the hall. Hell, I was even fucking happier to see that he didn’t get sunburnt but rather a fucking darker tan. I could only imagine how many more freckles he must have gotten the past couple of days.

Surprisingly he spotted me too after a while. And I may have fucking missed it if I wasn’t openly perving at him. But dear fucking god. The way he tilted his head slightly and sent me his bright as fucking smile was enough to make me pull the best charming smile I could. He just nodded before looking away again to end out short exchange. But I didn’t even care that it was so fucking short. I was just so fucking glad that he saw me. Hell yeah!

But of course with my shitty fucking luck, people had to notice our exchange. Or more importantly, the fucking shit-stain. (He was seriously out to just ruin my fucking life, wasn’t he?)

Do you want to know how I knew? Because it all started with a fucking, “Hey horse-face.”

“What!?” I snarled, leaning forward and looking towards the left side.

“Mbaaaaa!” He taunted. But that was it. That was the fucking last of it. After what fucking happened today with the eels and god knows what else. I was fucking done with it all.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, shit-stain!!!” I screamed. And holy fuck I was pissed off. I was out to fucking kill. I didn’t even fucking care about Armin, Erwin and Levi that were sitting between us. I just fucking leapt onto their laps and aimed straight for the shit-stain’s face.

Somehow he fucking dodged my fist and began howling with laughter. And all I could do was lay there fucking gobsmacked by his reaction. Only after a firm grip on my one of my calves did I finally realise what kind of fucking position I was in. Somehow I was fucking lying on top of all the three between us. But more importantly (or more like oh fucking shit!) I was laying head first onto the agro-man’s lap.

And I just fucking _knew_. I was fucking dead meat. My. Stupid. Fucking. Bad. Luck. What had I done today to fucking deserve this crap!? Did I fucking avoid doing that eel holy water shit for nothing!?

“I suggest if you wish to still have your balls by the end of the night, you get off of me you imbecile,” he warned. And holy fuck. His voice. Holy fucking shit, he was mad. I looked up as best as I could to only see the most fucking scary as scowl and hell fucking no.

I fucking leapt up to my feet, rubbing my hand at the back of my head. And dear god, there was nothing that I could do to stop the blood rushing to my face.

“S-sorry,” I apologised before taking a step and a bit to my own seat again. Of course the fucking shit-stain was still fucking howling with laughter. (Even after the agro-man had told him to shut up.) And it didn’t help that both the blond-stud and blondie were laughing either.

And apparently Marco had seen the whole fucking scene too because when I had looked up I saw that he was laughing while looking at me. Obviously by the fucking confused looks from his mates, they had no fucking idea what was going on or why Marco was laughing like a hyena. Thank fucking god for that!

The show was surprisingly good. The music was catchy as ever, even for a fucking musical. The only thing that I hated was how I had to fucking fight for my eyes to stay open. Obviously Armin had the same fucking battle as me but ended up giving up halfway through the performance. Only reason I had noticed was when I saw in the corner of my eye the blond-stud wrapping an arm around his shoulders. God. The feeling that it left in the pit of my stomach made me almost want to fucking chunder. It was like I was fucking happy for him but a little jealous at the same time. Okay, scratch that, maybe I was majorly fucking jealous by now. And maybe I was hoping that I could do the same with Marco at least some point on this ship.

Once the show ended, Erwin had offered to help Armin back to the cabin and into bed. I was fucking glad because although Armin was a pretty lean fucking bloke, he was still somehow heavy as hell. And I was just glad that I wouldn’t be hurting my fucking back by letting him rest on my shoulders.

We called it an early night once Erwin had said his goodbyes (including a fucking kiss to a half-asleep-Armin) and left the cabin.

I didn’t know when everyone else was going to wake up the following day, so I opted to setting my phone alarm instead for an ungodly fucking hour of nine. Why? Because I decided that I needed to catch Marco before he left his cabin the following morning. I didn’t exactly know what time he normally woke up except for the fact that it was _pretty_ early. But, I decided that maybe nine on a sea day was early enough for the first attempt.

I only fucking prayed that it would be early enough, cause there was no way in hell that I was going to enjoy a day being a fucking loner.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much of an exciting chapter, I apologise! Next chapter will be far more Marco orientated! 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the trip to Lombok. I’m sorry that it wasn’t as detailed as the porting days normally are. Sadly, the information of Lombok is really limited (especially photos) and since there was no street-view or anything, I struggled big time! But I tried my best anyway!
> 
> But please! If you do have time, google the two temples they went to and the resort!  
> Pura Lingsar Temple  
> Narmada Summer Palace  
> Sentosa Villas and Resort, Senggigi Beach (holy damn I’d love to go here)
> 
> I seriously wished there was more I could do for the port! I apologise! But hopefully it was interesting!
> 
> Thank you to commander-arlert and lesbianaradias for being the beta readers of this chapter! PLEASE go ahead and find them on tumblr! They’re absolutely amazing! And I hope that they will enjoy the following chapters too!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Would you look at that!!! No extra words in this chapter! Isn’t it amazing! Either Jean is no longer talking much in slang, or you guys are just getting used to it! Okay... maybe just three!
> 
> Fugly – fucking ugly  
> Chunder - vomit  
> Ooga Booga - that mask thing from Crash Bandicoot. I’m assuming they used to play this as kids!


	12. Day Well Spent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for the kudos, hits and bookmarks!!! Ahhh! Yay!!!
> 
> So! The next three days they’re at sea, which means lots of Jean and Marco time! This chapter was a little tough to write, but hopefully it ended up good! 
> 
> I tried my best to describe the laser show that will be featured in this chapter. I didn’t explain it exactly too well, so hopefully you all will be able to fill in the gaps with your imagination. If you’ve never seen a laser show, go ahead and look it up! It’s absolutely amazing! 
> 
> Anyway! Sit back, relax and enjoy a nice day with Jean and Marco!

_Day 15  
_ _In which Jean spends the entire day with Marco._

* * *

Wednesday (January 15th) was the mark of two weeks. Two fucking weeks. That’s fifteen days. Holy fucking shit. I’d been on a ship for fifteen fucking days, which meant I hadn’t slept on land in like fourteen fucking nights at that point. After realising that we’d already be halfway done with the cruise on Friday, I jumped straight out of bed, even though my phone had been vibrating against the drawers for a couple of minutes.

The others were still asleep and knowing that they all had shit planned for the day, I pretty much left them be. (Since you know... I had a plan to find Marco) I changed and got ready quickly as I could and made sure to grab everything I needed, including a towel for just in case I was going to swim at some point. (It seemed unlikely, but might as well be fucking ready.)

Just before I was ready to head on out, I realised that I probably should at least tell one of the dipshits that they didn’t need to look for me. (I think Armin would have been the only fucking one who would have cared that I was gone) So, I lightly shook him awake. And dear god, did it take a long as fucking time.

He eventually cracked his eyes open only to breathe a, “Huh?”

“I’m going to find Marco,” I whispered. He just nodded, closing his eyes instantly and going back to sleep. I just fucking hoped that he’d be grateful of me for leaving him alone for the day. I’m pretty fucking sure that he was aching for a day alone with that blond-stud of his as much as I was to seeing Marco again.

The first stop, as planned, was Marco’s room. I figured that I’d try my fucking non-existent luck and pray to whatever god that I’d be able to catch him before he’d have left. Sure, it meant I was skipping fucking breakfast, but it was worth the shot. And if he wasn’t in the cabin then I’d try the buffet (and probably have a bite to eat myself) before venturing off to whatever place I could think of next.

Only fucking problem was, I couldn’t remember what room was his. I could have sworn it was four doors past the middle (or central) elevators, but I couldn’t be sure. I was pretty fucking mad at myself for not taking note of the number like the blondie did for Erwin’s. So, in the end, I chose the number that looked remotely familiar from the earlier on the week.

And honestly, the thought of some fucking stranger opening up the door after I knocked was the last thing on my mind. (I seriously should have thought this fucking through.) After a second knock, I was sure as hell that maybe it was either the wrong fucking door or that Marco had already left. But for once. For fucking once in my life, my gut instinct did something good. And holy fuck was I celebrating.    

I was about to give up and walk away until I heard the door handle being turned. (Seriously, these doors are fucking nosey as hell, even though they were meant to be soundproof.) And dear lord, all I could do was fucking stare when the door finally opened. The sight in front of me was fucking ace because not only _was_ it the freckled boy (fucking hell yeah for choosing the right door!) but also because he was only wearing a fucking towel around his waist. I shit you not. He was _only_ wearing a towel. Holy fucking damn. _Shit._ He was so fucking hot.

First thing I noticed was that his terrible t-shirt tan was gone and what was left was on hell of a beaut tan. (Fuck, I could not remember him having that many fucking freckles on his shoulders, chest or arms.) The wetness on his chest and shoulders told me that he probably just came out of the shower and only when I finally scanned my eyes towards his face did I realise that my guess was correct. (Holy damn, the blush he was wearing while I perved at him did nothing to stop how turned on I was getting from the sight before me.)

“G-Good morning. I didn’t think it’d be you, Jean,” he greeted, giving me a shy smile. Oh lord, he was so fucking cute and hot at the same time that I didn’t even know how to react. Knowing that he was only wearing a fucking towel and nothing else was the worst possible thing for my dirty mind. (Man... the things I would have loved to do with him in that instant.)

“I’m surprised you’re here,” I retorted. He just sent me another smile before I continued, “Did you just come out of the shower or some shit?”

“Aaah, yeah, um... Sorry,” he stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand and looking elsewhere but my face. “I kind of just came back from doing some exercise.”

“Are you shitting me? You paid extra for that fucking gym? Are you crazy, mate?” I blurted out.

Exercise!? On a fucking cruise!? He was doing fucking exercise? Was that why he woke up early every morning or some shit? Holy fucking hell. I didn’t expect him to be this committed to keeping fit. (I seriously did not see this coming. His ball skills were so fucking terrible in Broome that I assumed that he didn’t like any physical activity like Armin.) God. When was this guy ever going to stop kicking me off my stride!?

“Kind of... I mean, it was Reiner’s idea...” He explained, finally meeting my eyes again. I was going to reply and ask if he wanted to head on out (after he got changed and shit... Although I wouldn’t have minded if he wanted to spend a day in just a towel) but he beat me to the punch. “C-come in.”

I followed him into the room and closed the door behind me. Surprisingly enough the curtains for the balcony were opened and his bed was already made. Either he got his cabin steward to come in super fucking early or he just made it himself. (It wouldn’t surprise me if he did the latter)

He obviously didn’t follow me towards the main area, so I opted to sitting on the corner of his bed while I waited for him to finish whatever he needed to do. Honestly, I had to fucking control every muscle in my body not to walk around the small corner by his walk-in closet and bathroom. As much as I wanted to do a surprise sneak attack on his naked ass, I knew it would only fucking ruin everything. I just had to constantly remind myself to take things slow. (Thanks blondie for that advice. But fucking hell was that hard! And starting the day off with him half naked was not the way to go either!)

“So...What are you doing today?” I questioned loudly from the room. I heard some coat hangers or some shit hit the ground followed by a small hiss. I seriously could not stop the soft snort that came out of my mouth (or is it nose?) from his sudden reaction to my question.

“Hm? Oh, nothing special, aye? I was just going to relax with Annie in the secluded deck area,” he called back.

“Do you think I can tag along?”

Instead of replying straight away, there was a string of silence that followed my question. Before I even knew it his head suddenly popped from the corner as he beamed me one hell of a big fucking grin.

“Sure!”

He eventually walked around with a beach towel around his shoulders while sporting boardies and a light blue polo shirt. (And dear lord, did he smell of sunblock. It was so fucking strong that I was amazed he didn’t have a white layer of it on his skin.) Of course, I couldn’t help but give him one pervy glare at his backside as he picked up his lanyard and card from his desk in front of me.

“Want to get going? I’m meeting Annie by the elevators.”

Once we made it through the door, I asked, “Doesn’t she stay right next door to you?”

“Hmm yeah. But she left the gym a little earlier than me,” he explained.

Once we rounded the corner to the small lobby with the elevators and stairs, we found Annie standing there against the railing with her arms crossed and looking mighty-fine fucking bored.

“Oh look, it’s the duo-colour haired Aussie,” she snickered once she raised her head. Marco chuckled quietly beside me before I crossed my own arms.

“God, my name is Jean! Will you sheepshaggers ever get it right!?” I growled.

“Whatever,” she waved. “So what? Is he going to hang around us today or...?”

“If you don’t mind, Annie,” Marco replied. The gaze he sent her looked fucking hopeful. Would she really fucking say no to such a beaut though!? Why would he even ask for permission in the first place anyway?

She just shrugged her shoulders before heading back down the hallway towards the secluded area. I was perfectly happy with the idea of following them to the outside deck but as soon as my stomach started growling like a fucking monster, I knew I probably should excuse myself for breakfast. (Which I really didn’t want to fucking do, now that I had found Marco so easily)

Somehow Marco had heard my stomach growling, even though he was walking in front of me and by some fucking miracle I was watching the back of his head or else I would have rammed right into him when he came to a sudden stop.

“Are you okay?” He suddenly turned around.

“Yeah, man. I just haven’t had breakfast, that’s all,” I sighed.

“Ah...” He breathed and before I knew he flashed his head back towards Annie who was still walking down the hallway. “We’re going to the buffet for a little while. We’ll be back in half an hour, okay?”

“All good,” she called, not even fucking turning her head.   

 

-

 

If you had asked me a week ago, I seriously never would have guessed that Marco would opt to going with me to get breakfast. Nor would I have guessed that he would sit at the table with me, silently nibbling at some fruit he picked out. (I think that was just so it didn’t look weird that I was the only one eating.)

But I was fucking grateful. (Man, within a week, look how far I’d come, hell yeah!) Not only did he ditch Annie for me, but he even fucking mentioned that I was still welcome to join them for the lazy day in the sun and knowing that only made me much fucking happier. A day (almost) alone with Marco sounded so fucking good. At this point, I was thanking my fucking gut instinct for choosing the right door. Actually, I was thanking the fact that Marco was still in the fucking shower and not already in the sun.

Not long into my breakfast did he break the silence, “So... Jean, where are your friends today?” He questioned after finishing a slice of rock melon. (I think that’s what the shit was called. You know the orangey coloured fruit?)

“Shit-stain and Mikasa are busy. Baldy and Sasha are doing some dancing shit while Blondie is going to probably do some fucking wine tasting with his blond-stud. It’ll probably end with fucking sexual tension though,” I explained before scoffing down a pastry. (It was this gloriously good strawberry jam one and holy fucking hell was it good.)

“Sounds like they’re busy as,” he replied. It went strangely quiet again and I couldn’t help but notice that he was still looking at me in question. I shot him back a confused glance before he chuckled and leaned onto his elbows. “You swear a lot, aye?”

I snorted and blurted out with my mouth still full of fucking pastry, “You don’t swear at all. Is ‘egg’ the only thing you know or some shit?”

“Egg is a perfectly good offensive word,” he quickly protested.

I quirked my brow, “Get real, Marco. I bet you don’t have it in you to say something rude.” That’s when I suddenly smirked as one hell of a good plan popped into my head. “At least say one fucking swear word.”

“L-like what?” He stuttered. Of course I didn’t miss the way his nose scrunched up.

“I don’t know, man. Fuck? Shit? Anything.”

“H-how did we even get to this topic?” He suddenly blurted out. Okay true, it wasn’t really the best topic to have, but _he_ was the one who fucking started it.

“Just say it,” I urged. There was no fucking way that I was dropping this without a single swear word leaving his mouth. Okay fine, I admit, maybe the word would be some wanking material for later on, but I was still so fucking keen to hear it.

He bit his lips and averted his eyes before mumbling a, “Fine.”

I smirked knowingly, waiting for him. I even leaned in forward onto my own elbows. I couldn’t believe he gave in so fucking easily. How the hell did such a fucking freckled saint like him give in to it?

“F-f-fuck,” he stuttered, still not meeting my gaze. And dear lord, it was so ace. So fucking ace! I couldn’t help but form my own shit-eating grin before replying back to him. (I knew this next statement was going to make him so fucking red. Hell yeah!)

“Wasn’t that hard, man.” I leaned in even more forward before quietly adding, “But now I wonder how it would sound like if you groaned it.”

“Oh-my-god,” he gasped, slapping his hands across his mouth. The blush that formed on his cheeks was fucking glorious. “You’re such an egg,” his grumbled. It was slightly muffled but all I could do was fucking bark with laughter. This was for all the times he shoved me off my fucking stride. There was no way in hell that I’d let him off easy for what he’s done.

 

-

 

After breakfast we headed back to the secluded deck area but before that we had stopped by the ice cream stand out on Deck 12. There was seriously no way that I could miss up on ice cream today. I mean, what better way was there than to start the day of relaxing in the fucking sun (with no humidity this time, thank fucking god!) than to have an ice cream?

I got myself the usual heavenly cookies ‘n cream, cause who the hell misses up on that shit? It didn’t surprise me at fucking all when Marco got a pineapple sorbet and vanilla scoop on his cone. The guy sure as hell liked creamy fruit. How fucking weird. And being the kind freckled guy as he was, he got Annie one too. (What a fucking surprise...)

Only after we reached Deck 10 and walked past Armin who was climbing the stairs (he had given me a wink once we pasted each other. I gave him a quick thumbs up behind my back to tell him to have a good day. That’s all that was needed) did I finally ask the one thing I  didn’t get to ask while at breakfast.

“What are _your_ mates doing today?”

He hummed, taking a lick of his ice cream before replying, “Not much aye. Probably just doing whatever they can.”

“Sounds... alright. That means we can have a day of relaxing without distractions,” I declared. He just chuckled and lightly bumped his shoulder against mine.

“Except for tonight, unless you’d like to join us.”

At the time I was just casually going in for a big bite of my ice cream, but as soon as he finished his sentence, I nearly fucking shoved my head into it by surprise. Fuck, I even got ice cream on the sides of my mouth because of it.

“Tonight?” I choked, wiping away the excess ice cream as quickly as I could. Holy fucking shit! Was he asking me to join them tonight!? Shit yeah! Score to fucking Jean Kirstein! (I didn’t mean to be that fucking surprised, I swear!)

“There’s a laser show tonight. I’m amazed you haven’t heard of it aye.”

Laser show!? A fucking laser show!? How the fuck hadn’t Armin mentioned this to me!? Or even Connie!? (Cause he normally loves this shit.) It sounded so fucking ace!

“Blondie hasn’t mentioned anything to me about it,” I retorted quickly.

“Blondie...? Oh right, Armin?” He gave another lick of his own ice cream before continuing. “Well, it’s after dinner, so it would be mean as if we’d all go together. I’m sure my friends wouldn’t mind. Reiner seemed to get along with Eren quite well.”

“Too fucking well. One shit-stain is enough. I don’t need another fucking one up my business,” I groaned.

He just laughed softly until we reached the door. I was about to open it (not just because I was being a good fucking guy, but because his hands were full, obviously) until he called my name.

“Jean. Um...”

I turned around, my hand still on the handle of the door, “Hah?”

He seemed to avert his eyes before giving me a small smile, “You have some ice cream on your nose.”

I fucking turned around and wiped my nose as fast as fucking lightning. How the fuck had I gotten ice cream there in the first fucking place!? Shit! There was no way I could stop the blush that found my cheeks. I had been walking down the hall like a fucking careless dipshit with ice cream on my nose this whole time!? How the fuck did that even happen!!!? Oh god. How fucking embarrassing. Shit!

His nasal laugh distracted my inner turmoil as he said, “Thought I’d just tell you...” I could tell he was trying to fucking hard not to outright laugh at me.

I ended up just grunting and opening the door. Well, it wasn’t like I could have all the fucking luck today. Maybe I had already used up all the fucking luck this morning when I had found him in only a towel. But the thought of him seeing such a stupid thing was almost cringe-worthy and for once in my fucking life I felt like running away and hiding from embarrassment. How the fuck did I even embarrass myself like that!?

Anyway, obviously rest of the afternoon went alright. And when I mean alright, I mean hell fucking good. We had chosen to lay on the deck chairs next to Annie after handing over her ice cream and we pretty much spent a decent two hours straight yabbering away about useless stuff. Okay fine, it wasn’t completely useless. It was more like Marco was telling me about his previous day in great detail that it almost fucking reminded me of Armin. (That’s one hell of a fucking bad thought; I had to physically shake it off at the time. I had to stop comparing the two.)

And honestly, I actually fucking enjoyed it. I don’t know... maybe it was the way his eyes seemed to gloss over as soon as he said something he particularly enjoyed or maybe it was when he said he’d show me the photos sometime. (Apparently I really had to see them) The craziest fucking thing was that I was actually listening and asking questions. Normally I just tuned out this kind of shit (let’s be fucking honest, I’ve had way too much of this kind of shitty talk with Armin in the past) but with Marco I was alert and watching him like a hawk. And I admit, constantly at the back of my mind I thought of that little figurine I had bought him back in Lombok. The more he spoke, the more I realised that he’d maybe fucking kiss me with excitement if I give it to him at some point.

Within the two hours we’d called Oluo (who was surprisingly working during the day rather than his usual night time. I figured the ship crew had some sort of shift thing going on) over and ordered a couple of drinks. Every time Marco opted to ordering fruit cocktails with me while Annie spent most of the time with her nose inside a book and sipping on some red coloured cocktails of her own. (Marco later told me that they were raspberry flavoured and, “Really good, give them a try sometime.”)

After the first two hours, we agreed on just laying on our own deck chairs and enjoy the much fucking drier sun than what we’ve had in the last couple of days. The thought of feeling the driest of all heats soon made me so fucking happy. Even Marco had agreed, but not before explaining to me how they had a rainy as Christmas. (That sounds like fucking shit and typical of New Zealand.)

I was so fucking content that I nearly fell asleep at some point with the rocking motion of the boat. And I seriously thought that maybe luck was playing on my side still (even after having ice cream on my nose) until I realised I had assumed wrong. Really, really fucking wrong. (Of fucking course, ‘cause wanting to spend an entire day lazily with Marco was too much to fucking ask for.)

I think it was around one in the arvo or some shit when another fucking elephant stormed through the door and straight (oh dear fucking lord) towards me. Thankfully they didn’t aim for me but rather Marco and Annie instead. (It sure as hell didn’t make it any fucking easier when glares were still thrown my fucking way. I figured that they all recognised me from when Connie had made a scene.)

“Marco! Annie!”

Would it be fucking weird to say that I was relieved when the voice that came out wasn’t one of my mates? Yeah. I was _big_ time fucking relieved.

“What’s up, Reiner?” Marco sat up, worry written all over his face. Even Annie sent him a glance through her sunnies.

“They’re having a group race! Come on! Let’s do it!!!” He explained excitedly. This time I finally looked up to Reiner only to find him sporting yet another tank top and boardies. Good lord, those fucking biceps were seriously something else. (Don’t any of you dare give me that fucking look. I don’t care if I was checking out Marco’s mate, okay?)

“Really? That sounds like fun!” Marco exclaimed.

“I’ll pass,” Annie replied almost instantly, looking back to her book.

“Aw, come on Annie. You’re no fun aye,” Reiner grumbled. “The prize is even a free massage.”

She just shrugged her shoulders and replied without looking back at him, “Why not take the duo-coloured Aussie instead?”

“Aye?” He actually fucking sounded confused.

I just sighed and replied, “Me.”

Eventually he turned his head towards me and as soon as he realised I was there his eyes fucking grew in size.

“What you doing here, Aussie?”

“Hanging with Marco,” I replied nonchalantly, sending him a small smile. He sent me a small smirk in return.

“Okay, let’s do it. I’m keen as!” Marco interrupted our small exchange. (Probably before either of us said something that didn’t need to be said) I didn’t even realise that he had stood and was giving Annie his towel. “You coming, Jean?”

As much as I wished that my luck hadn’t run out, I realised that I might as well go for it. At least I would still be hanging out with Marco. And if we won, I’d get a free massage out of it, apparently. So, I ended up nodding, chucking my towel towards Annie’s feet and following them down to Deck 5. It wasn’t that bad of a plan after all and it would help kill some time.

I was guided into a fucking big crowd of people until we found our way to the awkward lanky bloke. The way his eyes widened when he saw me was enough to make me laugh. Seriously, how long would it take until he got used to me? The way his body even shivered when I joined him was enough to make me guess ‘never.’

Eventually a woman (I’m pretty sure she introduced herself as Rico or something) with glasses and almost white hair (how this shit is possible is beyond me) began sorting out the groups. We were placed into the category of ‘four’ people and were told that we’d race another two teams who had four people in them too.

We got given a piece of paper and clipboard with a list of names and some empty space next to them. (And our own names were on their too, ‘cause apparently they were going to check our cards.) Rico had explained to us that whoever got the signatures of all the listed crew staff and made it back to her the quickest would win a massage for all participates in the group. She fucking made sure that we knew (dear fucking god her death glare was enough to even make me shit my pants) that we could run on the decks with staterooms only. That meant Decks 6 and 9 to 11. She also mentioned no one was on this deck either, just in case we wanted to check.

When we all looked over the list of people, (which Reiner agreed to carry) I realised that both Eld and Oluo were on it and I was damn fucking happy about it. Hell fucking yeah! At least I could earn us two fast signatures. But the other staff would be fucking hard as hell. Marco and Bertl stated they knew a few other people but majority would take a while.

“Depending on the other two teams, let’s start from bellow,” Reiner planned.

“True that. I guess they’ll all probably start from the top,” Marco chided before Reiner could continue.

“Let’s head to the front of the ship and work ourselves in the zig-zag motion.”

“What about the medical centre and kid’s deck?” I interrupted. He had looked up towards me with furrowed brows before nodding in agreement.

“Shot bro, forgot about that one.” I didn’t even want to ask what the fuck that meant. I figured that I was the odd one out of the group, so I’d let the sheepshagger talk pass. (Just this one fucking time, alright?)

Marco hummed thoughtfully before he suggested his own plans, “What about Jean and I will take the left hallway and you two take the right. We’ll pass in the middle by the elevators or whenever we can. If we didn’t find anyone, just give a head shake or something.”

“Sounds good,” Reiner agreed. I nodded too while Bertl followed my lead.

I’ll admit, I was actually fucking excited for this whole thing. Normally I’d prefer to do something like this with Armin or Mikasa who knew how to do shit like this correctly. But, Reiner didn’t seem like a bad leader, or better yet, Marco seemed even better as he started to take the plans into his own hands. I realised, after watching them for a good while, that they all worked pretty well together. Every now and then Bertl would suggest something better which surprised me quite a bit, but overall Marco seemed to take the lead.

Eventually it was our turn after a decent half an fucking hour wait. Obviously the ‘three or less’ category took longer than any of us even expected. (At least that gave us some time to fine tune our plans.)   

“Remember, no running except for stateroom floors,” Rico warned when we lined up on a makeshift line in front of the giant crowd. “They all should be wearing a fluro green shirt,” she continued.

We all just nodded impatiently. The other groups we were racing up against seemed just as fucking impatient as we were.

“On the mark of three... two... one!” She shouted.

We were off fucking speed walking as fast as we could towards the nearest stairs. (Which so happened to be the most frontal ones of the ship) “Don’t forget to have fun either!” I had faintly heard her call behind us.

As predicted by Reiner, both of the teams headed upstairs rather than down. But shit, the walk down was fucking scary. Being in thongs and having to climb down two to three steps at a time while the boat slightly rocked was fucking trippy enough that I had to be a wuss and hold onto the handle bar. I was fucking grateful though because Marco (who hadn’t been) had tripped and rammed straight into Reiner who was in front of him. I had grabbed hold of his wrist when he had fallen forward. Only after he muttered his apology did he realise that I had him in my grips which resulted in him sending me an embarrassed glance. (Unwillingly I had to let go. But dear lord, the couple of seconds of holding his wrist was fucking glorious.)

We started on the lowest of all fucking decks; the place where no one in their right set of fucking mind (or someone who does have kids) would go when sober. The troll centre, aka the fucking kids centre. The noise that had erupted from them as soon as we arrived was enough to make me hate myself for even fucking suggesting the deck.

As soon as we found two fluro shirt workers within the crowd of kids, I was fucking celebrating. They had checked our names on our cards and then signed the sheet of paper before encouraging us. At least my fucking suggestion had worked and I could only cross my fingers that the other two dipshit teams wouldn’t think quickly about checking this area. And surprisingly enough the medical centre deck (one floor up) had someone too.

“Smart thinking, bro! Wouldn’t have guessed anyone to be down here,” Reiner praised me (to which I just grunted) as we headed back up the stairs to Deck 6. Having to climb two flights of stairs with two steps at a time was already tiring me the fuck out. At this point I was already fucking sweating and by the sounds of Marco’s (fucking hot) panting, he was too.

And as planned by Marco, we split up as soon as we reached the deck. No one was even on the fucking area, (or even in any of the small shops that were around the balcony area that looked over Deck 5) so we decided to run all the way down to the end of the ship. When I mean run, I mean fucking sprinted. Marco and I even started howling with laughter as he ran in front of me (and claimed to be fucking faster than me, god damn it!) Reiner was yelling like mad man on the opposite hall and every time we passed each other by the elevator lobby I couldn’t help but snort at his craziness. By the time we reached the end of the ship we were all out of fucking breath and so glad to have found someone waiting by the elevators.

Up the short flight of stairs was Deck 7 and right outside the restaurant we ate at every night. We were pleasantly surprised when there was someone already waiting for us at the small podium outside the restaurant. Out of the corner of my eye I had spotted Petra standing by the entrance, giving me giant fucking thumbs up before heading back into the restaurant. (And I admit, it felt fucking good to know she had seen me.)

Next up was Eld, which Marco and I knew was either going to be at our bar or the cocktail bar on the other end. Reiner and Bertl still opted to check the other side even though there was no need. By then I had already carelessly forgotten about the fucking blondie and his plans for the day. But as soon as Marco and I speed-walked (not running, I fucking swear!) past one of the three bars on the deck, I couldn’t help but realise how fucking crowded the whole area was. (Well, all the seats were taken.)

Somehow. Some fucking how, I had spotted three blonds, a crazy as fucking women and a sour looking agro man sitting along the edge, sipping on wine. And for only a second I had caught blondie giving me a gobsmacked look before I had walked past the area.

Marco didn’t even have fucking time to question it before we checked our bar next to the one Armin was at and found Eld standing by the bar counter. Reiner and Bertl had obviously caught site of the coloured shirt too and joined us.

I sure as hell didn’t miss the fucking wink he sent me and Marco as he signed the paper. (With a fucking heart and everything) This guy knew too much for his own fucking good, didn’t he? Reiner obviously hadn’t missed the exchange and the laugh we both fucking earned from him as we walked away was almost enough for me to fucking punch his face in. Marco bet me to it though (by slapping his arm) and telling him that Eld didn’t know anything at all. (At this point I should have been fucking worried about a random (sort of) bartender knowing too much about us...But then again, it was probably obvious to him that we were hitting on each other. God fucking damn it!)

Deck 8 wasn’t that exciting. By then my feet were fucking hurting and I was sweating my ass off. Hell, even the others were fucking out of breath.  There wasn’t anyone by the top floor of the theatre hall but there were three (fucking three!) by the casino area, all of which seemed to mean a small conversation about casinos and gambling via Reiner and Bertl. (I learnt that Reiner has apparently betted on a couple of horse races once or twice, illegally, I think? Hell, I could see why they allowed him to. He didn’t even look fucking nineteen.)

Deck 9 had fucking no one, even after we sprinted down the hallways. As soon as we reached the frontal stairs, we all made an agreement to run down the same hall to the secluded deck on Trost since obviously no one was standing in the hallways but rather the ends of the ship. Once we reached Deck 10, we were running like nothing before. I couldn’t help but laugh like a fucking idiot as Marco and Reiner made ‘zooming’ noises as we ran down. (Man, these guys knew how to have fucking fun!)

And like a fucking dipshit that I was, I fell over my thongs and got fucking carpet burn on my knees. (Fuck my fucking luck.) Marco and Reiner obviously didn’t realise (since they were both being dipshits themselves) and surprisingly enough Bertl was the only one who had stopped to look at me.

“Are you alright?” He asked, panting heavily. He fucking shocked me even more when he held out a hand for me to grab onto. And I guess at that moment I realised that this guy was fucking ‘saint number two’ of the group. Or maybe saint number one. Because holy fucking shit, was he almost just as nice as Marco.

I took his clammy (oh fuck was it sweaty) hand and sent him a giant fucking smile once I was back on my feet, “Thanks mate.”

“No problem. Are your knees okay?”

“What’s the hold up!? Come on guys!” Reiner called from down the hall.

“Y-yeah! Coming!” Bertl called back, giving me a small smile before running down the hall again. I seriously had thought that he was going to bag me out and tell them that I had fallen, but apparently Bertl wasn’t a bad guy. Hell, he hadn’t even fucking mentioned why we had stopped. So yeah, the awkward lanky bloke was maybe a good guy after all. Okay, neither Reiner nor Bertl were bad, a little protective, but not bad blokes at all.

Oluo didn’t seem that fucking surprised to see us once we reached the outside area. But somehow he had fucked up and bit his own tongue as soon as he called out to us. Thankfully he could still fucking sign the paper as he tried to dab away the blood with a towel in his other hand.

Deck 11 had fucking no one on it and by the time we reached Deck 12, we were seriously out of breath, but there was no time for a water break especially after we spotted so many coloured shirts.

We were one fucking person short after Deck 12 and clueless as hell as to who or where we had missed someone. But by some fucking miracle I had spotted a coloured shirt on top of Deck 14 which we didn’t see after scanned it.

“Great spotting, Jean!” Marco had exclaimed (and grabbed onto my arm) as soon as we ran up the short spiralling stairs. I couldn’t help but beam a giant fucking smile at his praise. Today was sure as hell a great fucking day. Hell yeah!

The rush back down was fucking hard. Okay, maybe a bit trippy, dangerous and a little fucking scary, (oh lord, Marco still had my arm in his grip, probably for balance since he didn’t have a rail to hold onto) but as soon as we reached Deck 5 again, everyone fucking cheered. It felt like I was about to finish a fucking cross country run or some shit.

“Congratulations!” Rico cheered. As soon as Reiner shoved the clipboard into her hands, we did a quick scan for the other teams and that’s about the time we realised we had fucking won! Hell yeah! Holy fuck! We had actually fucking won! Hell, I was so happy that I even had hugged Marco without even caring about Reiner or Bertl. (Holy damn, Marco was so excited from it too. He was even fucking shaking when I had wrapped my arms loosely around him for a couple of seconds.)

We ended up waiting a decent ten minutes before another team eventually came and another couple more till the final team arrived. Rico announced that we were the winners and handed out these strange looking cards to us.

“Here are your tickets. You may go any day that you’d like, even separately,” she informed, giving us another congratulations clap before calling out to the next category. Man, I for one was fucking relieved, even after we walked towards the central stairs. (Damn, my legs were fucking dead by then.)

“Congrats, Jean!” Marco had gently bumped my shoulder once we reached the elevators and stairs. The smile he beamed at me was so bright that I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“You too, man. Can’t believe we actually fucking won,” I replied, still panting from all the fucking walking and running.

“It was mean as, aye?” He agreed. I just simply nodded a reply until I felt a fucking painful clap on my back.

“Bro, you’re not half bad, aye?” Reiner beamed from behind me. (Damn it. What was with all this fucking sheepshagger talk!?)

I turned around to give him a smirk and replied, “Can say the same thing for you, mate.”

His throaty laughed filled the air, “You called me mate! Churs bro!” Marco’s breathy giggles distracted me and before I even knew it, Reiner added, “Com’ere, bro-hug time!”

“What!?” I gasped, flashing my head towards him again. Instead of a reply I got given an arm hug (and still fucking bone crunching-worthy and nothing like the small one I had with Marco earlier) from Reiner. Bertl and Marco both chuckled as they watched our exchange and I couldn’t help but beam my own smile towards Marco.  The redness that hid his freckles for the most part was so fucking distracting that I didn’t even realise that I was still holding onto Reiner until Bertl cleared his throat. Of course, Reiner fucking howled at that.

We all agreed on meeting Annie after that and headed straight for lunch at the buffet. (At least the towel came in handy to wipe off the sweat.) And I’ll admit, it was great fucking fun. I thought it would have been fucking awkward but surprisingly it wasn’t near it. Actually, the fact that I kept feeling like I had done this with them so many fucking times before was the greatest thing ever. The best part was the way Marco had spent most of the lunch laughing with Reiner and how Bertl had began talking (god, I didn’t know he could actually fucking talk that much) or the small smile that filled Annie’s face every time she was included in the conversation.

The even fucking greater part was when every so often Marco’s and my knees would rub. Holy fucking god, he didn’t even bother pulling away or even sent me a look and this time I was actually aware that he wasn’t reacting because he didn’t want the others to know. (I realised if we never had that chat, I would have never even fucking known) I was even more surprised when all he did was suck in a tiny gasp (which he covered up with a laugh) when I had placed a hand on his knee. I made sure as fucking hell not to move it the whole time we were there and by the looks of it, he didn’t seem to mind.

Rest of the arvo was spent lazing in the sun and pretty much wasting time until we had to split and head to our separate cabins to get ready for dinner.

 

-

 

It was just before eight when I had found Armin (and the blond-stud) on my way towards the restaurant. Armin was surprisingly flushed (seriously he was so fucking red) and a little out of fucking order (his hair was in serious need of a brush) by the time I had a good look at him. The constant giggling from him was more than enough to make me eye him suspiciously as we made our way down the hallways. I had kept eyeing him out of the corner of my eye curiously until he finally spoke.

“Jean! How was your day!?” He exclaimed.

Just as my fucking suspiciously had guessed, he was drunk, I think. Okay, maybe just tipsy. I spared him no fucking time to even get ready for my reply, “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

Erwin’s breathy laugh was enough to make smirk as Armin bit his bottom lip and hooked his blond hair back.

“A little.”

I just barked a laugh as we finally reached the restaurant. (God, everyone in our group (except for match made in heaven, as always) was already there and waiting.) “How much is a little?”

“A couple of wine glasses, that’s all,” he dismissed with his hand.

“Are you sure they were a couple, Armin?” Eren teased once he overheard Armin’s explanation.

“I am fully responsible. Perhaps I should not have allowed him to drink a few cocktails after our wine tasting class,” the blond-stud interjected before I could reply by own snarky remark. He even looked fucking guilty when he faced me. (I didn’t even know that he could pull such a fucking face.)

“The wine was delicious though!” Hanji interrupted. “Let’s have the sweet one tonight!”

Erwin agreed and everyone else fell into their pairs of chatter while waiting for Petra. But of course, the fucking shit-stain had to be a pain in the ass, even after I spent the day without him around.

“Where the hell have you been all day, horse-face?” Ah.... I knew he’d eventually ask me. I bet he was curious as fuck to know why I had gone missing. Shouldn’t he have been fucking grateful?

I couldn’t help but give him a shit-eating grin before I replied, “Getting somewhere with someone.”

He snorted, “You’re finally fucking that sheep-”

“Eren!” Armin scolded even before the shit-stain could finish his sentence. “That’s not nice.”

“At least I’m not trying to fuck an old man,” I shot back towards the shit-stain. Armin had gently slapped my shoulder while the shit-stain fucking growled at me.

“Who the hell ever gave you that fucking idea!?”

Erwin’s throaty laugh interrupted me before I could growl my own remark, “Calm down boys.” His tone of voice was fucking scary though and both the shit-stain and I knew that if we ignore his warning, we’d be in big fucking trouble.

Petra eventually had called us in and surprisingly told me, “Congratulations on the win!” while being guided to the table. This earned me a lot of fucking curious looks, all of which I just took in my stride and smiled proudly. (Hell fucking yeah!)

Dinner went like how it always did. Luckily Marco and his group of mates were back in their seats (oh lord, Marco had worn that fucking pink dress shirt again and I couldn’t help but think about how hot he must have looked under it, especially after seeing him in just a towel that morning) and Hanji was sitting across from me, not even fucking bothered how I had sent Marco pervy glances.

Armin was chattier than normal and I blame the fact that he was tipsy as hell. He had ended telling me that they had fucking _five_ different types of wine during the class and he didn’t even remember how many cocktails afterwards. (The blond-stud corrected him and said it was only four, one of which was the champagne one that the blondie seemed to like.) Mikasa’s reaction to that knowledge was a fucking scowl and a mutter about not trusting Erwin again when it comes to drinking. I, for one couldn’t help but give him a light bump on the shoulder to congratulate him. Never did I expect fucking that Armin would get drunk for the hell of it. (Normally he had a good reason to, so this came as a big fucking shock to me.)

Eventually I had told them about what Petra had meant. They all congratulated me too and Hanji even fucking turned around and praised Marco and his mates. Fucking hell, Marco went red as a tomato from her eccentric words; it was so cute, holy damn! (But fuck, that glances he gave me every so often was enough for me to wish dinner would go faster.)

I also made mention of the laser show, which Armin gasped at and told us, “We should all go” and that, “He forgot to tell us.” Whatever fucking blondie. Was he even fucking sure that he’d remember the show by following day? I couldn’t help but notice in the corner of my eye the lingering stares the blond-stud gave him throughout dinner or the way he was seductively running his hand on Armin’s thigh. All I thought in the end was was, ‘well done fucking blondie.’ He was going to score hard tonight. Damn it, he was so fucking lucky!

After dinner, (around nine) we had met with Marco’s group outside the restaurant and headed straight for the balcony area that over looked Decks 6 and 5. (You know, right by the cocktail bar) Luckily we were half an hour fucking early, so we could find cushiony seats around the railings and small round coffee tables. Eren was the one who opted to find Connie and Sasha to tell them about the show since we all knew they would have been fucking pissed off if we didn’t tell them.  

After buying our own drinks, Marco had taken the seat between Armin and me while the blond-stud sat between Armin and the railing. This seating arrangement meant that Marco and the blondie could have one fucking hell of a time yabbering about the previous day.

Obviously I had heard all about the Gili Islands before hand, but it was surprisingly nice to hear about it again while Marco retold the sights to Armin. Of course, watching two blokes get excited as fuck over sights (oh lord, the way they both lightened up in excitement) was weird to me. Erwin seemed to like the conversation much more than me and asked his own questions every now and then.

Honestly, I just leisurely sat back, listened and sipped my own cocktail. Again, I was reminded that I should definitely think of a time to hand over the small gift for Marco and by the looks that Armin had given me at one point told me that he had the same exact thought. (Or that he was just reading my fucking mind again, even when tipsy.)  

The detailed chat was quickly quietened when the lights started to fade in the surrounding areas. I swear it was like all the fucking cameras got whipped out in an instant. Hell, I didn’t even fucking know where Marco’s came from! (I didn’t even realise that he had a small camera bag with him! Shit! Maybe I had concentrated too much on his face and freckles than what was around us.)

To put it bluntly, the show was fucking amazing. Wait, was amazing even a word to describe it? It was fucking gobsmack worthy. Hell yeah! It was only forty or so minute’s long show, but it was hell good.

The brightly coloured lasers were mostly controlled by some people down on Deck 5, but holy damn, this shit was timed fucking well. Bright green, orange, yellow, blue and purple lasers were constantly flashed in tune with really fucking catchy music. (During the show it went from techno music to really catchy pop music.) All I could was watch gobsmacked at all the flying colours and shapes.

Only when the music had slowed down, did it give me time to look beside me at Marco who was no longer taking photos but rather just watching in fucking awestruck. The way the colours were shining on his face almost reminded me of that foam party the other night and I couldn’t help but lean sideways into him.

“Looks so fucking cool,” I spoke loudly, hoping that he’d hear me over the music. I could barely see when his eyes finally snapped to me and before I knew it he was sending me a bright smile.

He learned into me too and replied, “You should look at the roof! It looks awesome as!”

I followed his advice and I was fucking blown away. Patterns were made all over the roof in time with the music and holy damn, it was so fucking awesome. Even though I had been spending the time concentrating only on the laser show, I still noticed that Marco never ended up sitting upright again and was still leaning into me with his face within reach that I could feel his breath.

So I did the thing that you’re meant to fucking do. You know the thing when you grab your crush’s hand. He didn’t even fucking react; all he did was twine his fingers through mine and held on so fucking tightly. (Hell, I didn’t even care that his hands were clammy as fuck.) This meant my stomach did a fucking twirl that I hadn’t felt in years. It made me so fucking warm and gooey and a little turned on. All I could do was concentrate on his soft hand and how his breath hitched when I ran my thumb across his. I couldn’t blame him, I shivered too when he did the same thing. (Holy fuck, I don’t mean to sound this sappy, okay!? Seriously, this whole fucking night was just one big fucking cheesy evening and I have no fucking regrets for typing it like a love-sick teenager.)

We stayed like that rest of the show. (Sort of anyway) Even when he started taking pictures again, he didn’t remove his hand once; rather he tried his best to hold up the heavy as fucking camera (probably) by just one hand. I ended up feeling pretty fucking guilty that I let go. (Even when he shot me a curious glance because of it) Obviously he got the memo and carried on taking photos as per normal.

Once the lights were slightly fading back on and the crowd around the railings began moving along, Armin was the first to speak, “That was amazing!!! Did you guys see the flowers patterns on the roof!?”  

“Hell yeah!” Connie had cheered from his seat on the other side of Erwin.

Obviously the laser show was done, but apparently with the low lighting there was still more going on down bellow. When some people began to sing some pretty fucking relaxing music, we all decided to stay seated and enjoy the music. Eventually we had all fallen into a lively chat about the show and ordered another round of drinks. (The blond-stud had to even tell Armin to give it a miss. I was fucking relieved because Armin was seriously not ready to have more. The look Mikasa had shot him from beside Connie was enough to tell me she had the same thoughts.)

I’m pretty sure we had spent a decent hour sitting there and chatting until we were interrupted by a woman. (Holy fuck it was the same one who asked about the cocktail class!) “Good evening gentlemen. Would you be interested in a Latin dance class tomorrow?”

“Latin!? What kind?” Armin chirped, sending her a curious look.

“Glad to see your enthusiasm, sir. It’s a salsa class,” she replied, sending him a bright smile.

He gasped and nearly even fucking jumped out of his seat before replying, “Jean! Marco! Let’s do it!!”

“Fuck no. I don’t dance to shit like that,” I scoffed immediately, crossing my arms. There was no way in hell that I was going to learn a proper fucking dance. No way. My hip thrusts and jumping was more than enough. Salsa was just... no. Fuck no.

“Come on! Let’s do it!!!” Armin urged.

“If Jean and I go, don’t you need a partner too, Armin?” Marco asked politely. (Oh fuck no. How dare Marco fucking encourage him! Shit!)

“Eren!!! Do a salsa class with us!” Armin had called out instead.

The shit-stain had immediately jumped up and shouted back, “Fuck that! I ain’t doing a class with you and horse-face again!”

“Oh! But you’d be such a good salsa partner!” The blondie pouted. Why the hell did he even think of the shit-stain? Didn’t he have a perfectly fucking beaut of a blond-stud to do this with him? Or was I missing something? Obviously by the way he chuckled, he was enjoying the small bickering going on.

During the shit-stain and blondie’s loud exchange, Marco had leaned into me and whispered in my ear, “Armin sure is cheeky when drunk.”

“Wait till you see him pissed,” I breathed through my teeth. He just chuckled, patting my arm.

“Why don’t you just ask Erwin?” Eren eventually called. Thank fucking god he brought it up.

“But he’s busy,” Armin explained quietly.

At the mention of his name, the blond-stud finally interrupted, “What time, perhaps I’m free?”

“Each class is two hours long. They’re at one and five in the afternoon,” the woman informed.

“Ooh! The five one you’ll be able to make, right Erwin?” Armin offered, suddenly excited as hell. Well that explained why the blondie didn’t ask the blond-stud first.

“Perfect, I’ll be able to make that one,” he replied.

“Sign us up too! Tango is really fun!” Sasha called, almost fucking leaping into the woman. (Another fucking dance class!? Hadn’t they already done one earlier on the day!? How the hell were match made in heaven always so energetic!?)

Basically in the end it was just Marco, blondie, the blond-stud, match made in heaven and I who wrote down our names. The others all had other shit planned already. They probably just didn’t want to learn fucking salsa, like me. And the fact that I was fucking dragged into this was what annoyed me. I didn’t want to learn how to fucking dance ‘salsa’ or whatever the hell it was. But the way Marco had beamed just as much as Armin did was the only reason I decided to agree. At least it meant another day with Marco that I really needed.

 

-

 

The ending of the evening was fucking ace. We all decided to head on up to Deck 12 and party a little longer for the fucking sake of it. Holy fuck was it good!

Marco and I only joined in the actual dancing for a couple of songs (dear lord, the fucking seductive dancing we were doing was sure as hell enough to remind me of the foam party) until his knees fucking gave up. Luckily I had been watching him intently as fuck and almost instantly had caught him by the arms. He had just chuckled shyly to me before shouting over the loud pumping music.

“Been a tiring day. Those stairs were killers, aye!?”

I just laughed a reply before offering, “Want to sit down? 

He nodded instantly at my question. In some ways, I was kind of fucking thankful. My legs were killing me too and I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to jump to the base of the music. Instead, I had grabbed hold onto his wrist and guided him to the bar and towards Erwin and Armin.

They didn’t seem to be mad that we had interrupted their tensioned as fuck conversation, nor when we ordered another round of drinks and spoke more about the upcoming salsa dance for the following day. But somehow I knew it was a fucking wrong idea to have interrupted the two fucking love-blonds. Erwin was seated on a bar stool while Armin was almost sitting on his fucking lap between the blond-stud’s thighs. The way the blond-stud constantly ran his hands over Armin seductively was enough to even fucking turn me on. I mean fuck; even when I eyed Marco curiously I could tell he wasn’t so fucking pleased either by their small show.

But, it was the push I needed all day because the small show only urged me to brush my arm against Marco’s. Hell, I didn’t stop there, I even fucking slid my arm around his waist (oh lord, I was already cracking a fucking fat at this point and I didn’t even care. His waist was hard and yet soft at the same time and nothing like what I remembered Armin’s being) ever so slowly, making sure I kept an eye on his reactions. All he did was train his eyes onto Armin as he spoke, but the way his cheeks flushed even more was enough to tell me that he was reacting in a good way.

Surprisingly enough Marco did a good fucking job to hide the growing tension between us, even when I started slowly brushing my hand against his side or dug the tips of my fingers into his pants. (Seriously, how the hell was he still standing there, looking perfectly fucking normal? I would have fucking snapped right at the beginning.)

Obviously it didn’t help that the blond-stud was constantly bending down onto Armin’s shoulder and sending me a couple of seductive looks. Eventually the tension grew so fucking high that somehow the blondie faked a yawn (he looked far from tired) and declared that he was going to, “Retire for the night and please set the alarm for ten.” (Wait, Armin wasn’t going to fucking stay at the blond-studs for the night!? Was he out of his fucking mind!?)

I heard Marco sigh in relief as soon as I removed my arm from his waist and the two blonds walked past us. This seemed to be the perfect time for him to say, “I think I should head to bed aye?”

“Yeah... You have to get up fucking early, right?” He just bit his bottom lip and nodded ever so slightly. “I’ll walk you to your cabin.” I offered.

He hummed a reply and led the way towards the doors through the buffet, which was surprising because the doors on the other side would have taken a shorter am-. Oh... _Oh._ Oh fuck. He did that on fucking purpose? Hell fucking yeah! What a fucking smart move. God, not even I had thought about that.

The walk down the stairs and towards our cabins was quiet and slightly awkward. I figured it was because of the sexual tension that had happened in front of us and because of my small stunt. But what shoved me off my fucking stride (again! Mother fucking again) was when he had grabbed hold onto my hand once our arms had brushed against each other. All I could do was chuckle softly as our fingers intertwined. I was reminded again of how soft his hand seriously was and how fucking good it felt just to be this close to him. His red cheeks told me he was enjoying this just as much as I fucking was.

The strange, butterfly feeling I got in my stomach was enough to make me slow down our steps even fucking more. It had been a long as fucking time since I had felt like this. (Which is why I chose to saviour it) Fuck, it probably had been a decent fucking year since shit like this has happened to me. And the fact that I was feeling nervous and excited all at once didn’t even fucking phase me. (Even though it had been such a long fucking time) All it did was make me sigh sadly once we had reached his door.

He didn’t release my hand when he opened it; instead he just turned around in the small doorway to look at me in a way that I sure as hell had not seen before. (Okay, that’s a fucking lie, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that look when we had sailed past Kimberley Coast or some shit.) And it did nothing but shoot straight to my fucking dick.

The way his cheeks were still faintly red, the way his light brown eyes seemed to have grown darker and how he licked his lips timidly was only the final push I needed. With the feeling of my beating heart in my throat (holy fuck this is so cheesy) I had leaned up towards him, closing my eyes the closer I got, until our lips met in a light but timid kiss.

But oh my fucking god. That wasn’t enough. As soon as I closed the space between our bodies, my hands were fucking instantly in his hair. I broke the kiss only to tilt my head the other way and kiss him more frantically.

I slowly opened my mouth to run my tongue against his soft lips but he never opened his lips for me. (I figured he was still nervous as hell.) But he fucking surprised me when he wrapped his arms around my waist and as soon as I felt a small squeeze of my ass, I was fucking done. My self-control that I had somehow held for the past two fucking hours disappeared (Or more, because let’s be fucking real, I had been kind eager for this since I had seen him in a towel earlier that morning) as I shoved him backwards into his cabin and sideways until his back hit the wall with a small thud.

The gasp he breathed because of it was the opening I had been looking for so fucking eagerly. I slowly slid tongue into his mouth and as soon as I licked his tongue, I was fucking shivering in want. Holy fucking shit, how long had it been? I was finally fucking pashing Marco! Hell fucking yeah! I was finally feeling the warm wetness of his mouth which only urged me kiss him even harder.

All he did was open his mouth even wider and breathed a quiet moan as our tongues fought playfully. At the beginning he seemed a little timid, but as we carried on kissing, he had grown braver. And dear fucking god, for a ‘not so experienced’ bloke, he was fucking good. His lips were so soft and his tongue was so fucking warm and wet and _oh_...

I didn’t even care how far we were going. I didn’t care that I was going beyond than what I should have. I just ground my hips against his, earning myself yet another soft moan (that I swallowed with my mouth) and a gentle squeeze of my ass. After another thrust I finally felt exactly what I was hoping to feel. _Fuck._ He was so fucking hard against my own aching boner and I was just so fucking hot and ready to release us both from our tight jeans. By the way he shuddered underneath me told me he felt my hardness too. But instead of going further, I carried on with the slow, sensual thrusting as I messed up his soft hair even further.

We were so into it that we were fucking startled when we suddenly heard a bunch of fucking giggling girls walking past the door. We instantly shot our heads towards the door, only realise that neither of us had even fucking closed it.

I couldn’t help but scowl towards the doorway, annoyed and fucking mad that our small make out session was interrupted. The panting of Marco drew my attention back towards him. And the sight I saw once I looked over him towards him was enough to make me fucking shudder everywhere. Hell, I’m pretty fucking sure I grew even harder than I have ever been. (God, my jeans were so fucking uncomfortable.) He looked so fucking flush that I could barely even see his brown freckles and holy damn; his lips were so red and swollen.

“Y-You should probably go....” He whispered coarsely, averting his gaze towards the ground. I could only nod a reply, panting myself.

Even though I was disappointed as fuck at the interruption and short ending, I knew he had a point. He was still new to this whole.... thing and we both agreed that I wouldn’t get into his pants as easily as I wanted to. I also knew very well that I couldn’t push him, even though we were both so fucking turned on and hard.

I somehow released myself from him, took two steps away until I was out of the room and turned around to face him again. The way he eventually stared at me dazedly was almost enough to make me go against his fucking orders, but I knew I had hold onto whatever self-control I had.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” I asked, surprised at how husky my own voice was.

“Sure,” he replied.

The gaze he gave me after that was enough for me to actually say, “Fuck it” and instantly our lips met again in a slow, sensual kiss.

After a couple of seconds (fuck, it was probably minutes) he chuckled softly against my lips until he pulled away. He averted his eyes elsewhere again and I couldn’t help but smirk at how he blushed even fucking more.

“After ten?” I suggested.

He just nibbled his swollen lower lip, still not meeting my gaze. “Sounds good, aye? I’ll wait for you at the secluded deck at eleven.”

“Ace,” I replied, slowly lifting my hand towards his face. His eyes finally met mine again as he beamed another shy smile at me.

“Night,” I whispered.

“Good night,” he replied. I closed the space once more only to give him a small peck on the lips.

As soon as I backed away, I had removed my hand and watched him send me one last small smile before closing the door.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hohoho! Who enjoyed this chapter!?  
> Hopefully it was far more enjoyable than the last one! Next chapter will be a little more exciting with them learning how to dance! Woohoo!
> 
> Thank you to lesbianaradias and commander-arlert for being my beta-readers! You’re both so awesome!!! 
> 
>  
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> True that – that’s true, lol. Don’t ask, it’s a Kiwi thing, I think?  
> Churs – cheers  
> Bro- hug – really? Come on. Everyone knows what a bro hug is  
> Shot – cheers, thanks  
> Fluro – fluorescent  
> Pashing – french kiss


	13. Salsa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for all the lovely kudos, hits and bookmarks!
> 
> As promised, this chapter will be full of Jean and Marco again! 
> 
> I have never done salsa dancing in my life, but it was so great to look it up! It looks really fun and exciting (and like one hell of a work out!) It was either going to be tango or Latin! But, I decided on salsa! I apologise in advanced that it won’t be in great detail because uh.... writing dances is kind of a struggle. 
> 
> So! Sit back, relax and enjoy the cruise with Jean and Marco!

_Days 16-17  
_ _In which Jean and Marco learns how to do the salsa._

* * *

 

Thursday (January 16) was a wake up like every other so far on this fucking ship, except, I found myself yet again jumping out at the first ring of the alarm. Oddly enough I only found Connie and Armin once I stood up. Okay scratch that, the strangest part was that blondie had returned the previous night and the shit-stain hadn’t. So, what was the shit-stain even up to? Why wasn’t he here? (I was sorta beginning to think that he really _did_ owe me that ten bucks.)

I ended up stretching and shrugging off the curiosity I had about the shit-stain and decided to rather wake up Armin who was laying in a tangled mess of sheets.

I shook him lazily, trying to get him to wake up, “Armin.”

“Hm?” He grumbled, turning his head to look at me.

“It’s ten,” I replied, heading straight towards the bathroom to get ready before the other two needed it.

Once I left the bathroom I only found Connie getting dressed while Armin was still lying on the bed. I thought he had fallen asleep on his stomach again, so I headed his way to shake him harder. But before I could even fucking do that, my eyes caught the sight of purple marks all along his inner thighs.

Why? Why the hell was he so fucking lucky!? Actually, the better fucking question was: why the fuck was he even back in our cabin!? It was fucking obvious as hell what went down the previous night and I couldn’t believe that he ended up returning. What the fuck?

“Your blond-stud sure loves to give hickies,” I scoffed.

“Hm? What are you talking about?” He groaned, turning around and finally sitting up.

“Your thighs.”

At that moment I realised that maybe he didn’t remember getting them or some shit. He _was_ pretty drunk the previous night, but surely not as fucking drunk to not remember it. (I don’t think the blondie has ever gone that far... I think?)

Of course, my guess was correct when he suddenly squeaked once he stood up. This resulted in him stumbling forward into me.

“And I even told him not to,” he hissed under his breath. “Thanks,” he quickly added while he stood upright again.

I quirked my brow at him before bending down to pick out some clothes to wear, “You’re not hungover?”

He took a minute before he replied, “Not really. Just sore.”

Yeah, could fucking tell why. He obviously had one hell of a fucking night when he had left with Erwin. In comparison, mine with Marco was good. I was making great progress and the fact that I had already sucked off his face made me so fucking proud. At least we’ve moved up on that stage rather than dwindle along with pecks.

After I left Marco’s room the previous night, I headed straight back into an empty cabin and made full use of it in a shower that I really needed. Dear fucking god, it was one of the best shower and wank I’ve had in such a long fucking time. (Trust me, the way I bent that small swear word of his from the previous morning only made me that much more fucking eager to get him to swear more often. Damn, it did its job though and made my wank so much fucking better.)

I had been happy as fuck when I had left the bathroom to find yet another empty cabin. (Cause you know... I may have been just a little loud in the shower.) Since there wasn’t much to do, I decided to head straight to sleep and obviously I was too tired to hear any of the others returning to the cabin that night. I blame the tiredness from that person-hunt thing I was forced into doing. Man, that shit tired me out. I’m amazed my legs didn’t fucking hurt the following morning.

“Going to head on out for breakfast, you guys coming or what?” Connie said while I lazily smeared sunblock over my arms.

“Hell yeah,” I replied, grabbing a new beach towel and my sunnies before leaving the cabin.

We met Sasha along the way which made me realise that maybe the shit-stain wasn’t up to something after all since Mikasa was missing too. Damn. Was I ever going to get that ten bucks off him? (Even after just a bit of hope?) At this rate it seemed like I wasn’t and it disappointed me more than what I care to admit that there wasn’t anything suspicious going on.

“Where’s Jaeger and Mikasa?” I asked along the way to the buffet.

“Mikasa said something about a boot camp before she left,” Sasha explained, jumping up the stairs.

“Why the fuck would they do exercise while on holiday?” I retorted. Correction, why the fuck did Marco and his mates do it too? It was meant to be a fucking _holiday_. Holidays normally meant relaxing and being a lazy piece of shit.

“They? It was just Mikasa,” she tilted her head towards me.

Wait. Just Mikasa!? Scratch that fucking thought I had before, because holy damn. So where the fuck was the shit-stain then? Why the hell had he just gone off on his own without telling any of us? Armin must have had the same thought as me because as we reached the top of the stairs he gave me a knowingly smirk and a small bump of the shoulder.

 

-

 

Breakfast went as par usual. Mikasa joined us closer to the end and looked to be like she was fresh out of the shower. Even when Armin had asked her where the shit-stain was, she just shrugged her shoulders, acting like she didn’t know. Fucking whatever. I was sure as hell it was just an act. There was no way she didn’t ever know where he was. The way she watched him all these years was enough to know that.

The topic of Eren was dropped pretty quickly when Sasha had brought up the whole salsa dance thing, which I wasn’t looking forward to. I don’t normally admit to this kind of shit, but I can’t fucking dance. Hip thrusts and jumping are the only fucking dance moves I know and the way she was explaining salsa made me fucking more nervous that I ought to be. To say the least, I was not looking fucking forward to it and knowing that Marco was going to be doing this with me made it that much fucking scarier. I just hoped to god that it wouldn’t end in bruised and bloody toes.

Eventually Sasha and Connie excused themselves and said they’d see us at the location of the dance class at five. I had eyed my watch and saw it was time to meet Marco at the secluded deck and invited Mikasa and Armin to come along. Blondie had said that Erwin had a full morning of activities (which he wasn’t invited to, poor blondie) and that a day spent relaxing would be nice. (And by the looks of how he wobbled up the stairs before breakfast told me he fucking needed it. Damn him for finally getting laid. By the looks of it, it was one hell of a good one too. Fuck you, blond-stud!)

Before we headed to the secluded deck, Armin asked if he could get a book first, since by the looks of it, we’d spend rest of the day laying in the hot as fucking sun. (Seriously, I don’t even get why I was fucking looking forward to the dry heat. We weren’t even fucking half way to our next port and I was already sweating like Bertl by just walking in the sun to the other side of the ship.)

When we had reached the secluded deck, I was thankful to find Marco laying on a deck chair and not surprisingly, Annie was with him again. By now I realised that Reiner and Bertl would disappear to their own activities and leave Marco and Annie behind to do whatever they wanted. Not that that I could blame the two sheepshaggers, ‘cause you know, they’re apparently a couple or some shit.

Armin and I quickly bought drinks from a bartender whom I didn’t know (thank fucking god it wasn’t that weird Oluo guy again) before heading in the direction of Marco. Mikasa had already walked to Annie, which was interesting. Ever since the day in Broome, I had noticed a weird friendship or some shit between the two. Nearly every time our two groups came into contact, Mikasa would be at Annie’s side if she wasn’t watching Eren with hawk eyes.  

“G’day Marco,” I greeted, taking seat on the deck chair next to his.

He immediately sat up at the sound of my voice and beamed be one hell of a fucking giant smile, “Hello!”

Today he was wearing his own pair of sunnies and I was kind of disappointed that it hid a big portion of his freckles. But, I was not nearly as fucking disappointed because holy damn; he was actually wearing a fucking tank top. I had gotten used to seeing these tight as polo shirts on him that suddenly seeing something sleeveless was like heaven. I’m pretty fucking sure that his arms were constantly getting more and more freckled. (Like fuck I cared. They worked fucking magic on him.)

“Morning Marco,” Armin called too, taking the deck chair beside me.

“Ah! Armin! How are you?” Marco questioned, leaning forward to get a better view of Armin.

“Great. Looking forward to the dance class?”

I just sighed at that, laying back in my deck chair and letting the two have their conversation about something I was not in the fucking mood for.

“A little nervous. It’ll be pretty interesting aye?” Marco smiled. I just chuckled under my breath at his reply until I felt a light tap on my shoulder. “I’m pretty sure you’ll be a great partner.”

Armin laughed at that, “Jean? He doesn’t know a thing about dancing.”

“Damn right, mate. Hip thrusts are as far as I go,” I confirmed with a cocky smile. Hey, blondie knew all too well.

“Aye?” He tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure you looked snazzy as when we danced to Abba the other night,” Marco retorted. I fucking shot him a glare at his reply. All he did was send me a small smile and it almost, like fucking almost, looked like a smirk.

“Abba? Dancing? When was that?” Armin interjected.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Marco.” I barked, sitting up. Like hell I was going to admit to Armin that I fucking danced to Abba the first time Marco and I got drunk together. No fucking way. Armin wasn’t really the type to tease, but hell, he’d never let me fucking live it down.

“A-anyway. How did you enjoy your night with Erwin?” Marco quickly asked, sending Armin a hopeful smile, I think?

When I took a quick peek at Armin, I could almost fucking instantly tell that he knew what Marco had meant. And since he had known me so fucking well, he knew that it was exactly some shitty thing I would do when fucking drunk. Cause hell, I fucking embarrassed myself when drunk all the fucking time. It doesn’t help that _we_ danced to corny as music like that in the past. (I blame it all on fucking Connie. His parties always had ancient music playing.) Thank fucking god those days were over and done with.

I allowed the two to carry on in their own conversations for a while after we agreed to just spend rest of the day relaxing and taking it easy before we had to get to a dance class at five in the arvo.

Honestly, I actually fucking enjoyed it. You know, just laying there, listening to Marco chat about useless shit to Armin and what not. Eventually their conversation died and Armin went straight into a book he had brought along. Marco ended up just laying there (he seemed to avoid his own book that had been laid out by his feet since we had arrived) and only every now and then spoke to me quietly.

At some point he fell asleep. Of course, I couldn’t help but watch him for a little while. He surprisingly looked really fucking cute when he was asleep. His face was aimed towards me and I knew I should’ve just left him alone to sleep in the sun. Instead, I had been an annoying pain and lifted my hand to run it along his sticky arm. I figured he had a hell lot of sunblock on, which would’ve explained the stickiness. But the smoothness of his inner arm was so nice and soft that I kept running my fingers gently along it. I could have fucking sworn he smiled in his sleep.

I ended up being so fucking keen for taking a snooze too, especially knowing that I had a tiring dancing class ahead of me. I was seriously not looking fucking forward to it. I knew it was just going to be yet another way for me to fucking embarrass myself in front of Marco and ruin whatever good points I had so far. But maybe, just fucking maybe, it would be good. Maybe by some miracle I’d be good at whatever dance it was. I mean hell, it’s not like I’ve been doing anything fucking bad lately... So there’s no way Karma could pull some shitty trick on me.

For rest of the day, we just stayed at the secluded deck. At some point Armin and I went to get some sausages at the barbie on Deck 12 for everyone and by then it was heading for three in the arvo. I was already on my fourth cocktail since I figured, if I needed to do this stupid dancing class at least somewhat decently, I needed to be a bit tipsy or something. (Hell, this shitty plan had worked last time for me, so why not do it again?) I made sure to buy two more once we handed out the sausages to our drowsy mates. (Yeah, even fucking Mikasa had fallen asleep.)

 

-

 

The dance class was held in a place that I hadn’t really been to. The only time that I have was when we had the tour of the entire fucking ship. The class was held on Deck 12, somewhere at the front of the ship, past the tiny cafe (and library) and into this giant bar with cushioned chairs around small circular tables, bar stools around the bar and a fucking giant section for, apparently, dancing. It even had a fucking disco ball and giant screen against the back wall.  All I could remember from the tour was that apparently this was one of the rowdiest bars every night due to the whole section for dancing and karaoke.

Armin had insisted that we wear clothes that we’d dine in, since there was only going to be an hour gap between the two. Of course, this meant no fucking shower, cause there was not enough time. I figured that all the dancing would get me fucking sweaty anyway, so maybe it was a good thing.

Erwin (holy fucking damn. Okay, I may have said something about Marco looking hell hot in a deep red dress shirt. But let me fucking tell you, this man. Damn it, Armin!) and match made in heaven had met us there.

To be fucking honest there we a lot of people around. I had no fucking idea how we’d all even fit in that one area. It’d be fucking amazing. Somehow we found spare cushioned seats close to the open section even though it was so crowded.

Once it was close to five, all the bartenders in the area had checked our cards and handed us free glasses of wine. I figured this was to get people in the mood or whatever. (Okay, I don’t even fucking know.) Admittedly I was cringing at the fact that I’d be stuck drinking wine again during dinner. But hey, free booze was fucking free and maybe it’d lighten me up just like I needed.

What surprised me the most was how Marco (who took the cushioned seat next to me, while Connie was on my other side, and was looking like such a beaut in his own hot get-up) could swallow that shit without pulling a face. It was even more shocking when Sasha nearly drank hers in one gulp. If Connie hadn’t stopped her, I’m pretty sure she was going to.

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen!” A female’s voice called from the empty section.

When I had turned my face towards the area, I only then realised that it was slightly lifted. Right at the front stood a red haired chick with sprinkles of freckles all over her cheeks and one hell of a tall and tanned bloke with a buzz cut almost like Connie’s.

“Are you all ready to learn some salsa!?” She called into the microphone she had.

People around us were cheering. Obviously they were a lot more fucking pumped than any of us. Well, if we ignore the fact that Connie and Sasha were cheering too. (But they were always way too fucking energetic.)

“My name is Hannah and this is my dancing partner, Franz,” she introduced and pointed to the tall as fucking bloke who smiled. “We’ll be your main instructors for today.”

A few people ‘wooped’ in the crowd before she carried on. “Before we get started the lesson. Please, sit back, relax and enjoy the free wine while we and a few crew members share with you a special performance.”

Honestly, I don’t even know what I was fucking expecting. The crowd seemed so fucking excited and even Armin was squirming excitedly in his seat. I guessed it was going to be some really good shit or something, but I really didn’t know. And maybe, for Marco and Armin’s sake, it was a fucking good thing I hadn’t known when I agreed to this shitty deal.

Because damn. Could these fucking people dance. I didn’t know who the hell to even look at. (It didn’t help that the music was fucking catchy as ever.) There were two pairs of couples doing some crazy as moving while Franz and Hannah was in the back moving their feet so fucking fast and making turns twirling and what the actual fuck.

I won’t lie; the dancing was actually fucking cool. Cool but fucking scary. Scary as in, there was no way in hell that I could dance like that.

No. Fucking. Way.

Halfway through, I couldn’t help but lean over towards Connie. He sent me a confused look before leaning towards me too.

“Do you think Marco or Armin will chase me if I ran now?” I tried speaking over the music.

All I fucking got was an explosion of laughter as he patted my shoulder and looked to the front again. I was being fucking serious. I seriously wanted to know if I could dash before they noticed. Cause there was no way in hell this shit was easy. Better yet, there was no way I was going to dance with fucking Marco like that. But, I knew I had to stay put for Marco’s sake.

Obviously I got too absorbed in the dancers that I didn’t notice until closer to the end of the performance that Marco had moved his hand towards my wrist. Actually, it was the grip that lured me and once I shot him a gaze he smiled timidly to me. I didn’t even need to fucking guess it. I just knew he was nervous as hell too. (That made me feel so much fucking better.)

All I could do was swallow my wine in one gulp, hoping that it’d take off the edge. Even Marco handed me his half full glass for me to scull. It’s like he knew I needed it more than him.

When the performance finally came to an end, Hannah grabbed the microphone again to announce the next part, “We’re going to ask if everyone could please wait around the sides while we moved all the tables and chairs for some more space.”

It didn’t take long and while at it we all fell into a quiet conversation. Armin was still excited as hell and knowing that the blond-stud was probably experienced in dancing, he’d have an easy fucking time.

I wasn’t so sure for Marco and me. He still sent me a timid smile whenever our eyes locked and I couldn’t help but run the back of my hand against his as we stood and listened to Armin and Sasha excitedly go on about how great the performance was. Once our fingers finally fucking linked between the smallest of all fucking gaps between our sides, I knew instantly that he was, in-fucking-deed, as scared shitless as I. His hand was so fucking clammy and sweaty that I even shot him a curious look.

“Alright everyone, please line up in rows and make sure you’re right next to your partner,” Hannah instructed.

As we began to form the lines, Marco had breathed next to me, “It won’t be that bad aye?”

“Damn fucking hope so,” I groaned.

“Just let loose and enjoy yourself,” Armin suggested, standing next to me. “Dancing is about having fun, isn’t it?”

We decided to take the second row from where Franz and Hannah (and some other crew people) were standing. It was one hell of a good decision because even from the second row we could hardly see what they were doing. Luckily the fucking screen against the wall came in handy.

For the sake of embarrassing myself, I’m not even going to fucking explain how this shit happened. We had to do some steps with our legs and feet. Okay, not just steps but some leaning to and dear fucking god, I was lost most of the time. No really, I was fucking confused.

I kind of regret the fact that I spent most of the ‘learning of the basic steps’ on myself and not how Marco or Armin was doing. It took me longer to get a hang of the steps and only after eventually sneaking a peek at Marco, did I realise why I was having such a hard fucking time moving forward and backwards.

Apparently I was too fucking stiff in my hips. Do you know how I knew? Because Marco was so fucking good at moving them hips of his. Fuck.... I had to fucking swallow my drool and look onwards again to avoid cracking a fat or anything that embarrassing. Okay, and maybe it was the arm movement too. Once I snuck a peek at Armin as well, I realised that I was too stiff overall and that I should’ve been a lot more into it and moving my arms around with the beats Hannah was chanting.

The worst part was that just the basic steps was already getting me fucking sweaty and as soon as Hannah made mention of side steps, I actually fucking groaned. I’m pretty sure I heard Marco chuckle beside me, but I didn’t really bother to check.

The side steps weren’t nearly as fucking bad and luckily I got the whole open-your-shoulder-slightly thing a lot easier than the first basic step.

Eventually Hannah instructed us to face our partners and told us how we were meant to move. We had the option of either holding onto them via the hand and shoulder, or by just trying to move on our own.

Once I turned to face Marco, I instantly knew holding onto his shoulder was not going to be an option. I was met with a blushing Marco and I could have sworn he was sweating just as much as me. But surprisingly, he was actually fucking smiling. God damn it. He was enjoying this, wasn’t he!? Fucking traitor! I thought he was fucking nervous as me!

“It’s quite intense aye?” He chuckled, running a hand through his hair.

“My legs are going to kill me tomorrow,” I agreed.

I had a look around at the other people while we waited and realised something I don’t normally look out for, because really, who even gave a fuck? I noticed Marco’s skim of the crowd and realised that I wasn’t the only one.

“I think Armin and us are the only bloke-couples here,” I affirmed. It didn’t really seem like anyone cared, but I spoke it anyway.

He met my gaze for a couple of seconds before mumbling a, “Yeah...” and averted his eyes towards the front. I could have fucking sworn he reddened even more after he agreed.

I’m going to guess that he was embarrassed or some shit. Who could even fucking blame him? He was doing a great fucking job so far. I was the first guy he was doing this kind of shit with openly and surprisingly he wasn’t as fucking shy as I thought he was going to be at first. If we ignore the blushing he always did and the way he shivered every time the back of our hands touched, he was doing pretty well for a first timer. Well, much fucking better than what I was when I had gotten with Armin. (Now that was not the greatest time of my life. I’d prefer to ignore that stage had ever fucking happened.)

Anyway, so apparently to dance with a partner, it was the same thing. Obviously you had to choose who was going to be the leader and who was going to be the follower. The leader moves forward first while the follower moves back. I was fucking keen to be the leader between Marco and I, but I was highly disappointed when he seemed to take the lead after a few trials of moving. (Those trials included nearly stepping on each other toes and banging our fucking foreheads together.)

There was nothing spoken except for a few breathy chuckles between us as we fell into some kind of strange rhythm. Hannah was counting the beats over the microphone as everyone adjusted to being with someone else. Franz who had been walking around to check if everyone got the hang of it only gave us a nod and moved along quickly. (At least we were doing it fucking right.)

It didn’t take long until she told us about the odd twirls we could add in and the opening side steps we could take. At the fucking mention of twirls, I instantly (for some fucking reason) became a little self-conscious. The fact that I was being the follower meant I was falling into the chick’s place and that meant bad news for me. There was no fucking way that I was going to do that.

I was not going to fucking twirl and move around Marco like some chick. No. Fucking. Way. I don’t do that kind of shit. Fuck. I may be gay, but I’m not _flamboyant_.

“D-do you want me to?” Marco’s stutter broke my mini internal struggle. I had sighed in relief as soon as I registered what he meant.

“You don’t mind?” I quirked my brow. He was doing the leading and yet he fucking offered to do the chick’s stuff too? Bless fucking you, Marco. You sweet, sweet fucking freckled angel. He obviously saw that I wasn’t that keen on it and I was fucking thankful for it.

“It’s not that bad aye? Looks pretty mean,” he nodded sending me a sheepish smile.

I couldn’t help but smirk before I replied the one thing I knew he was going to love, “Sweet as.”

He did not fucking disappoint. A hand flew to his mouth as he barked out laughter and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. His laughter didn’t go unnoticed because even Armin from behind me had turned around and patted my shoulder. I just turned my head to grin cockily at the blondie.

“Oh-my-gosh, Jean!” Marco gasped before falling into another fit of laughter.

“What did you do?” Armin asked sceptically.

“Nothing,” I shrugged before cracking another smile. “Calm down, Marco.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Marco panted lightly, flapping his hand around. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that aye?”

I realised then that we were meant to be doing what everyone else was doing. You know, dancing and shit. Once Marco tried to wipe away the smile from his face he nodded towards me to signal he was ready. I nodded too, reaching out a right hand for him to hold onto.

He took it gingerly (he even fucking took a quick look around to make sure no one would react. I didn’t quite get it because by the amount of laughing that was happening from behind me via the blondies, it was like it didn’t really matter that we were two blokes dancing together.) and sent me another smile that was this time quite timid.

I won’t lie; our movements were fucking awkward at first. We had to try and time it right while still staying balanced as fucking possible while holding hands lightly. But, after a while we got it. Stepping forward, to the middle and then back. Slightly moving the hips and definitely moving the arms.

After a while, I’d say we were fucking good. Hell, we even start laughing and going with the catchy music that Hannah had turned on. Of course, she was still shouting numbers for us to keep in time with, but I had drowned out that shit long ago. Instead, I had put my full concentration on Marco and the way he was laughing and breathing in front of me.

His eyes were so fucking bright and the blush on his freckled cheeks was almost cute. Honestly, I don’t even know at what point this class turned from “shit fuck” to “this is fun.” And I think if there weren’t so many fucking people and if the lights were dimmed, it would have been fucking sensual. (Okay, we’d have to be moving a hell lot of fucking closer and slower for that.) But, I was actually fucking happy with how Marco and I worked together. (Even though I was getting so fucking tired.)

Overall, it was a lot of fucking fun.

 

-

 

“Can I get you gentlemen anything?” Eld had asked not even fucking five minutes after we found seats around the bar counter.

“Pina colada please, Eld,” Marco nodded, handing over his card.

“Raspberry margarita,” I replied, handing mine too. (Hey, can you fucking blame me? I was in the mood for something like slushy-like.)

Marco only eyed me curiously at my choice of drink before he was distracted by Reiner who was sitting next to him on the other side.

After the class, we had headed to the cocktail bar for a small drink before dinner at eight. I was damn fucking thirsty then and by the panting and laughter of everyone else; I knew they’d be too. Honestly, I think the blond-stud and Armin needed the drink most. The way they were fucking dancing was crazy. It was so fucking obvious that Erwin had experience under his belt. Damn it.

Armin looked like he had the best time out of all of us. Even the match made in heaven had a hard time like Marco and I. We didn’t stand a chance against the two blonds.

Dinner went without a hitch. The shit-stain had shown up looking pretty fucking happy. I hadn’t seen him so fucking happy in the entire cruise so far. Do you know why I say that? Because as soon as I had asked him where the fuck he’s been all day, he just told me he was busy. He had the cheek to ignore every other fucking question I had. But hell, I had eyes like a fucking hawk and I did not miss the glances he sent that short agro man. Something was definitely up. The shit-stain never fucking answered me like that. He was always keen for bickering. What was even going on with him!? It had annoyed me even more when Armin and Mikasa hadn’t even cared! What the fuck!?

After dinner, Marco’s mates and our group (including match made in heaven) went for an hour show at the theatre and now we were at _our_ bar with everyone.

It was heading for eleven at night and a bunch of drunken were people dancing to some flashback music at the small clearing the bar had. We all opted to head straight to the bar counter for some drinks first.

While I was waiting for the drinks, I had turned around in the stool to watch the crowd jumping with the music. I was pretty into it (with my leg even fucking hopping in time with them) that I got startled when I felt a hand run up my arm.

I shot Marco a quick look only to find him giving me a small smile. He averted his eyes quickly towards the counter and that’s when I realised our drinks had arrived with the cards.

“What is that?” He asked once I picked up mine, taking a sip of it.

“Raspberry margarita. This shit is so fucking good,” I replied, taking another sip. He had been watching me sip it curiously, that I couldn’t help but to add on, “Want to try?”

I could have sworn he squirmed a little in his seat until he nodded. I held out the glass and he took a quick sip of the drink. It seemed he liked it because all the sudden his eyes fucking widened as he pulled back.

“That tastes really nice!” He beamed, licking his lips.

“Fuck yeah, almost like a slushy, right?”

“I might get that next time,” he said, turning around in his bar stool to look out to the drunken people too. A comfortable silence fell upon us while we sipped our drinks and listened to Reiner’s rambling from next to Marco.

 “Let’s put that dancing lesson to the test Armin!” Sasha called over the music. She was so fucking loud that she even caught Marco’s and my attention.

“Erwin?” Armin took a peek at the blond-stud who had an arm around his waist for most of the evening. He just chuckled and nodded before taking hold of Armin’s hand and leading him to the dance floor.

“I’m keen too!” Reiner called quickly after, pulling poor fucking Bertl along with them. The look he shot Marco and I told me he was not fucking up for it, but Marco just sent him a small wave in return.

Connie and Sasha followed them too and fucking finally Marco and I were alone. _Kind of_. I mean, it wasn’t really hard to ignore the shit-stain and that agro man sitting a couple of seats away from us at the bar. Hanji and Mike had gone off somewhere (I think she had said something about the casino) while I was pretty sure I saw Annie and Mikasa sitting on cushioned chairs somewhere closer to the cleared area. (I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t up for sitting with shit-stain and the agro man either.)

“New drinks, gentlemen?” Eld asked, earning our attention. I didn’t even realise that I had finished my drink so fucking quickly. Even Marco was done with his. (Shit, I swear, he’s never finished a pina colada that fucking quickly before.)

When Marco and I ordered the same thing (raspberry margarita) I could have sworn Eld had a fucking smirk on his face. I concluded that, yeah, this guy knew too fucking much about us.

Once our second rounds of drinks arrived, we turned around in the bar stools again to watch the crazy people dancing, since there wasn’t much else to look at. In the midst of grinding and jumping people, I saw two blonds. Obviously they had given up on the salsa dancing and had gone straight for what everyone else was fucking doing. The worst part of all was, I could not fucking take my eyes off them. (This is bad. Really fucking bad. Here I am, admitting to the fact that I may or may not have found them fucking hot. Shit.)

It almost reminded me of the previous night where the tension had been so fucking strong between the two of them that it even rubbed off on Marco and me. I’m pretty sure Marco had been watching them too because before I knew it, I felt another light trail of fingers along my inner arm. I glanced towards Marco to find him not even meeting my eyes but rather still keeping his eyes trained on the dancers. I smirked at that and found his hand easily once his trailed down towards it.

And just like that. Just fucking like that, the tension was back.

There were butterflies in my fucking stomach as my hand grew fucking clammy. I could feel his breathing even though there was loud pounding music in the background. And the way he rubbed his thumb (this time) over the back of mine made me shiver. I had to gulp in hopes of keeping control of my fucking dick and self control.

(I want to add a fucking disclaimer before all you fucking dipshit readers call me _easy_. I hadn’t done this kind of shit in over six months, alright? Can you fucking spare me a moment and accept the fact that I was cracking fats left, right and fucking centre!? Could you really fucking blame me!? Marco was just... _god_. He was just a fucking freckled sex-god on white as fucking legs. Of course I can’t control myself.)

“Today was a lot of fun, aye?” He asked over the music, still rubbing his thumb over mine. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I leaned towards him until our shoulders were touching.

“Hell yeah,” I agreed, loosening the grip of our hands before I lightly trailed my fingers up his smooth freckled arm.

“Dancing wasn’t that bad in the end,” he breathed.

I shot him a quick look to realise that he was still watching the crowd. I was slightly disappointed, but that didn’t stop me from still running my fingers up all the way towards the inner joint of his elbow. I’m pretty sure he fucking shuddered at my light touch.

“T-they’re really into it,” he murmured, nodding his head towards the dance floor. I turned my head to look at the crowd again, realising what he actually meant. Damn. Fucking damn. The way the blond-stud and Armin were grinding and dancing sensually against each other was enough to give me the courage I really needed.

“Yeah....” I breathed quietly, my hand finding his upper thigh. I heard a small gasp escape his lips before he gently bit down on his lower lip. I wanted to watch him nibble them, but instead he sipped more of his drink. I didn’t let that discourage me though. (It was probably his way of trying to keep calm.) I faced the front again, never taking my hand off his thigh.

I don’t know how long we were there for, just leaning against each other’s shoulders, watching the crowd (since blondie and the Erwin had left at some point, I’m going to guess their grinding got too much) and talking quietly about useless stuff while I continued to run my hand seductively against his thigh. Every now and then I went a bit further up to his crotch and a little more towards his inner thigh (his legs were fucking spread out for balance) and every time I could feel him shudder under my hand.

I ain’t going to lie, by then I was so fucking turned on. My jeans were fucking straining and I had to squirm to shift the position of it or else I would’ve been in fucking pain. I’m pretty sure he was in the same condition. Marco never reacted any differently to tell me so, but he seemed to opt in running his own fingers against my arm that was on his thigh.

After I had placed down my glass, I couldn’t help but lean closer into him so that our heads touched for a few minutes. He chuckled nervously under his breath before I slightly turned my head and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Okay, maybe it was more on his jaw... kinda close to his ear. His skin was so warm and slightly rough under my lips. I definitely fucking knew that he was blushing as hard as he could by then.

“J-Jean,” he mumbled, eyeing me in the corner of his eye. I just sent him a cocky grin before kissing his jaw again, but this time I opened my mouth a little bit, so I could taste his slightly salty skin against the tip of my tongue.

I knew I was in the fucking wrong and that he didn’t exactly approve of me doing this in public. (Cause of the whole ‘shy’ shit and ‘taking it slow’ shit.) But I couldn’t help myself. I was just so fucking horny and the idea of him probably being turned on too was too fucking hard to forget.

My hand was lightly rubbing up and down his thigh while I left wet kisses at the curve of his jaw. I could have sworn every time my hand went higher up his thigh, the more he shuddered and gasped. His breathing was beginning to become irregular and instantly I knew that he was in-fucking-deed horny as I was.

I was actually fucking nervous about what I was going to say next. It was either going to ruin everything (including the mood) or it was going to do fucking wonders. I know he wanted to take it slow and I should have been a good fucking crush-lover-god, I don’t even know what we were at that point... but really, I was thinking with my dick. I was horny; I was fucking hot just for _him_. And the tension I had because of him since the day I had first seen him, I knew I couldn’t stop myself.

Fucking hell, I was just so fucking glad that I did think with my hard fucking cock that night.

“Can I admit something?” I whispered seductively in his ear while my hand still travelled up higher on his thigh.

“Aye? Go ahead,” he turned his head, making me lean a little further back. He gazed back towards me, never taking his eyes off of me. The look he had was both curious and a little... hungry?

“I have the biggest boner for you right now,” I breathed.

He gasped, lowering his eyelids and sending me the fucking sexiest seductive look I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t fucking know how, but his cheeks and ears somehow even went more fucking red and I could have sworn if he had bitten his lip any harder, it would have bled.

He closed the small gap between our faces after a couple of minutes to whisper in my ear, “Wanna’ go to my room?”

_Oh_. Oh fuck.

God yes. Fuck yes. That sounded so fucking good. His whisper not only gave me fucking shivers up m spine, but immediately the blood rushed to my dick, making even fucking harder.

“Hell yeah,” I breathed, not even giving him a chance to properly take in my reply. I immediately grabbed hold of his hand that still lingered on my arm that was on his thigh and leaded him straight through the crowded tables, to the lobby and up the stairs.

I swear we were fucking speed-walking hand-in-hand to his room. I was just so fucking eager to get in there and out of my tight as fucking jeans. When we got to his door, he fumbled with his card and even inserted it upside down. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his nervousness before breathing his name.

He gave me an apologetic fucking smile before I just shook my head and took hold of his chin. Our lips met for a few seconds in a sensual kiss before he pulled back quickly and fixed his card into the slot the right way up. As soon as he unlocked and opened the door, I shoved him right in, making sure to close it behind me this time.

He released a small yelp when I had shoved him and gave me a curious look over his shoulder, but all I did was wrap my arms around him from behind and closed my eyes. I began to leave wet and open mouthed kisses on his freckled neck softly, tasting the saltiness of his skin and the faintness of sunblock. He obviously hadn’t taken a shower either before the class.

The soft whimpers that came from his mouth told me he enjoyed my mouth against his neck. I felt the gentleness of his fingers running through the back of my hair and I couldn’t help but shiver. He leaned his head back in the opposite direction, giving me full fucking access to one side of his neck. I attacked it almost immediately, leaving frantic short, biting kisses while he began panting, shuddering under my touch. (Unless he was just shaking from being way too fucking nervous. It honestly did not even fucking matter to me at that point.)

“I want you so bad,” I breathed into his ear, nibbling at his lobe as soon as the words left my mouth. My hands that had been on his stomach moved to his hips instead and I griped them tightly.

“Jean,” he groaned, allowing me pull his ass into my tight jeans and erection. He gasped as soon as he felt it and I couldn’t help but smirk as I still nibbled on his ear lobe.

“I’m hard just for you,” I whispered huskily, grinding my crotch into him. The whimper that escaped his mouth was all I needed to let him go and gently push him towards the bed.

He somehow toed his shoes off before climbing onto the bed that had been opened on the one side. He flicked the covers back closed and crawled (with that fucking hot ass in the air) all the way towards his pillows.

I watched his with hungry eyes as he turned around to his back, never averting his eyes from me even though I could tell he was fucking nervous as hell. (I swear the twitch he had in his eyes meant he couldn’t hold my gaze as long as he wanted to.) The deep blush on his freckled cheeks and the way he was shivering confirmed it for me.

I thought I was going to be the one to make the first move... but _god_... when he bit his bottom lip before he slightly spread his legs slightly, inviting me in. It was like everything bottled up was at its limit and I fucking snapped.

I nearly fucking leapt onto the bed, sliding one knee into the gap his spread legs and the other on the other side of his right thigh with my hands digging right into his soft hair. I immediately leaned forward and slightly to the left to support myself with my left arm. I kissed him so fucking frantically with my eyes squeezed shut that even our teeth clucked together. The chuckle that escaped me was swallowed quickly enough as soon as he slid his tongue timidly into my mouth, running along mine.

I don’t even fucking know how long we kept pashing. All I remember was kissing him like a fucking starved man. It felt so fucking good. His soft lips, his wet and warm tongue... oh lord. It was all so fucking hot and wet and before I even knew it, I was thrusting my crotch into his right thigh and earning a small moan as he felt it.

I slid my hand from his hair eventually and dug them under his dress shirt once I pulled it from his jeans. His chest and stomach felt so fucking smooth and sweaty. The way his muscles moved and shivered under my touch told me that he was slightly ticklish but was enjoying how I was feeling him up.

I attempted to try and play with a nipple once I had found one and the response I got was so fucking worth it. The thigh I had been rubbing my crotch against slightly lifted, grinding against me even fucking harder that it almost hurt. The groan that left my mouth was totally fucking uncalled for, but the way he chuckled against my lips made me realise that he liked it.

Not wanting to be the only one to feel good, I lowered my right hand and aimed straight for the area I knew he wanted it at most. There was no fucking point in even taking it slow now. After all the fucking sexual tension, I highly doubted I even needed to tease him. I knew in the back of my head that I should take things easy for his sake, (but I couldn’t stop myself) even when he shook underneath me, still unsure as to what to do next.

He broke the kiss as soon as my hand rubbed against his clothed boner. And lord.... the way he panted into the crevice of my neck and shoulder was enough to make me rub him even harder. The way he had gripped onto the covers of the bed only boosted my ego.

“J-Jean,” his moan muffled against my shirt. Oh fuck... He had sounded so fucking good. Never did I fucking imagine that I’d hear him moan my name so easily and quickly. The fantasy I had of him the previous night was nothing compared to this. Hell, any fucking fantasy I had of him so far was not as good.

I settled for was running my fingers along the outline of his shaft before rubbing the ball of my palm even harder against his shaft, grinding my own erection against his thigh slowly.

“Marco,” I mumbled.

Marco allowed his head to fall back into the pillows so I could take another look at him. The way he was biting his bottom lip was enough to urge me in for another playful fight of tongues. Obviously it was too much for him because all the sudden he was thrusting upwards against my hand. God... it felt so fucking good. I wanted and needed _more_.

He whined against my lips when I slid my right hand away from his erection but seemed to still kiss me frantically as I guided his hand that had gripped the covers towards my ass. Only when he realised why I had done it, he automatically squeezed my ass cheek experimentally. My hand immediately returned to his crotch when I found his other hand finding my ass too. He even pushed his hands into them, guiding me to grind even harder against him.

I decided at that point that I seriously could no longer fucking handle the jeans (god it was so fucking tight that it almost even hurt) separating us. I slowly removed my hand against his erection and unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans as best as I could with one hand. The hiss I felt against my lips was enough to make me smirk and pull back.

I opened my eyes again and I took a minute to watch him in his lustful state. His eyes were still tightly closed and his cheeks were hot and red.  The way his chest rose and fell with his hitched up shirt while he panted was so fucking hot that all I could do was bite my own bottom lip.

“You sure?” I croaked. I had enough decency left to double check that this was what he wanted.

He slid his eyes open slowly, giving me a small nod and smile. I was about to move back onto my knees fully but his hands on my ass stopped me. He sent me a cocky (holy fucking shit, never thought I’d see that expression either) as he slid them slowly towards the front of my own jeans and began to unbutton them.

“Yeah,” he whispered, slightly tugging them down once my zip was undone until it revealed my grundies, (okay fine, boxer briefs) which I knew probably showed him one hell of a fucking view of my hard dick. He gulped, never once removing his eyes from my crotch until I pulled back fully, getting off from him and tugging down only his jeans along the way until they were completely off.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, even when I got off the bed to push mine off completely too. But the way he closed his legs (oh fuck.... the way his boxer briefs wrapped around his dick was so fucking hot that I even fucking shuddered and had to hold back a whimper) and sent me a timid (and almost fucking shy) smile wasn’t exactly it. But, in the midst of it all, I remembered that I was probably the first fucking person to ever see him like this and that only made me much fucking happier that I decided to leave on our boxers on for now.

He rubbed the back of his hand across his forehead, probably sweating his ass off just as me. (Why the hell was room so hot?) I didn’t give him too much of a break before I climbed back on, placing my knees either side of his thighs until I was sitting lightly on top of him.

I figured that this was probably the best position for now. I knew what to do and he didn’t (but obviously he fucking would because instincts seem to normally kick in and I’m pretty sure he had seen enough fucking porn to know what to do next) but I still thought that it was best, especially since I’d take the lead.

As soon as I leaned back forward with a hand gripping the bed covers either side of his shoulders, our crotches rubbed against each other which earned me a muffled moan as he covered his mouth with his hand.

“Don’t...” I breathed, pulling away his hand and replacing it with my mouth for a simple kiss. I guided his hand towards my ass again before I slid both of my hands up his hitched shirt again to find his small dark nipples.

Using my well fucking trained hips and thighs, I slowly started to roll my hips harder towards him, earning a yelp as he quickly pulled away from our sensual kiss. God.... the noises he made was going to be the end of me. He sent me small sheepish smile before joining our mouths again as I began to keep up the pace. I couldn’t help but release my own groan into his warm mouth when I grinded especially hard against his hard dick.

“J-Jean...” He breathed, squeezing my ass even tighter. The way he arched his hips to meet mine was the final fucking straw. My hands dug straight towards his boxers as I sat up, resting on his thighs.

He watched my face for a split second through half-lidded eyes before I watched his eyes flipping towards the way my hand slowly played with his clothed shaft. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, his reactions was too fucking good. The way he bit his lip and strained to keep his eyes open was going to be my undoing. I couldn’t help but send him a seductive look in return when I moved my other hand towards my own strained boxers.

He whined again when I removed my hand from him but soon it turned into a gasp when I seductively rubbed myself in front of him with both hands. I ended up removing my hard and throbbing cock from my boxers slowly.

All I could do was watch his reaction through half lidded eyes as I pumped it slowly a few times. God... I was so fucking hard and ready. The way he watched my hand made my stomach do twirls and knew I was ready and desperate for a fucking release.

Before moving onto his boxers which had a small wet patch at the head of his dick, I quickly slid down mine until it strained against my spread thighs and made sure to hook the back of them under my ass cheeks.

I gave him one last rub through his tight underwear before sliding them down until it met my knees.

_Fuck_....

I couldn’t take my eyes off of him as I gasped too. The way his dick rose slightly from the restraints and then landed heavily onto the trail of hair from his belly button had my mouth fucking watering.

He was uncut and darker than me, but so fucking hot. The dark hair around his balls and the patch at the base of his shaft somehow even fucking turned me on. (I hadn’t even realised how high his shirt had been hitched up.) He was everything I didn’t fantasise about. He was much fucking better than I expected. He wasn’t anything like Armin or anyone I had seen. He was bigger, darker, and maybe thicker too... but god. It was so hot.

“You like it, aye?” His husky voice broke my lustful stare. I shot my eyes straight towards him, only to realise that he wasn’t even looking at my face, but rather my dick. The way he timidly licked his lips was the push I needed to lean back down again.

We both hissed as our naked and throbbing dicks rubbed against each other lightly. He was so hot and hard against me. The way his stomach rose to meet mine was in pants was only an extra added pleasure.

“F-Fuck,” I groaned, thrusting my hips experimentally towards his, allowing our dicks to rub even harder.  “F-feels so good.”

He just moaned quietly, taking hold of my cheeks, “R-really good. Oh-my-god,” he muttered. Before I could even add anything, he pulled me down for a slow and sensual kiss. The way he licked and explored my mouth was enough to let me know how much he was enjoying it.

The way my heart was beating so fucking fast made it all so intense that I could hear nothing but it and the smacking of our lips. I grinded my dick against his slowly to match the kiss and as soon as I began to suck on his tongue, I picked up the speed.

It became too fucking much way too quickly. I tried to grab hold of both of our erections, but we were both too fucking thick for just one hand. Growing impatient at the tightening of my balls and heighten in the pit of my stomach, I pulled back to my knees, earning a confused look.

I grabbed hold of his dick and ever so slightly pulled back his foreskin to stroke him slowly and lightly. He arched his back, squeezing his eyes even tighter as I began to work him from a few strokes to full jerking. I made sure to linger at his sensitive head every few seconds which earned me a better reaction.

I swear, if I wasn’t wanking him, I would’ve asked if he was in pain. His face was so fucking intense that all I could do was watch him as he panted and gripped the sheets. He was so warm and hard in my hand that I was more than happy to finish him off like this.

Once he got control of himself, he rose onto his left elbow and lifted his right hand towards me to take hold my own dick, watching it intently. I used my free hand to hold up my shirt, allowing him better access.

I hissed as I finally felt his fingers around me for the first time. It was just as I expected it to be like; his hands were soft, uneasy and maybe a little shaky, but it was still so fucking good. Obviously he was trying to copy my rhythm and speed, but seemed to have a few problems. I didn’t really care because I knew it was the first time he’s wanked someone else. As soon as I picked up the speed, trying to not go too fast for him, he took a deep breath and tried to follow.

Our pants and moans soon filled the room and somehow at some point I began thrusting to meet his hand instead of letting him do the work, only because I could tell he could no longer think fucking straight. The way his lifted his hips frantically into my hand in pleasure was enough to tell me he was so fucking close to his release. The beads of precome that had formed at the slit of his head only confirmed it for me. Hell, even I was fucking close and the way our eyes kept meeting only urged me on.

The familiar tightening in my balls told me that I was close, so I moaned out a, “C-close,” before I could even stop it.

“S-same,” he moaned back, breaking eye contact through his lidded eyes. “J-Jean!” He threw back his head, releasing a shuddering moan as he came with my hand still pumping him.

His come sprinkled all over his hitched dress shirt and onto my hand. The way his adam’s apple bobbled as he swallowed was so fucking hot that after one thrust into his tight grip was enough to send me off to my own swirling ecstasy. I came all over his dress shirt (fuck!!!) and softening dick.

My thighs grew weak after that, so I flopped down onto the bed beside him, panting heavily as I tried to come down from the fucking amazing shit that just went down. I turned my head once I found my breath and gave his jaw a noisy peck before he chuckled in between his own breaths.

“That was fucking amazing,” I sighed, enjoying the empty and sated feeling in the pit of my stomach. That was possibly the best fucking release I had in such a long fucking time. Shit. It was fucking amazing. All of it was. Heck, _everything_ about Marco was amazing.

“Yeah,” he breathed, turning his head so our eyes could meet.

“Do you think I can stay the night?”  I asked. I was surprised at how husky my voice still sounded. Or maybe it was just because I haven’t done this kind of shit in a long time.

“I have to get up early, remember?” He replied. I could have sworn I saw a bit of disappointment in his eyes when he had said it.

“Come on, Marco. Just this once,” I urged, giving him the best convincing face I could manage even though I was tired as hell.

He chuckled, running a hand through his hair before nodding.

“Okay, I’m just going to take a quick shower.”

“Sounds fucking good. I’ll go take one too. Be back in a few,” I agreed, getting off the bed to find my pants on the ground.

“Choice,” he sighed, not moving from the bed.

Once I had my pants back on, (and after I gave one last look at him and his messed up look, which was hot as fucking hell) I returned to my cabin for probably the fucking fastest shower I’ve had on this ship. As much as I wanted to spend more time enjoying the strong spray of water, (and trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I seriously just fucking wanked his dick) I knew there was one hell of a fucking hot freckled boy waiting for me, so I tried to be as fast as I could.

I opted to get changed into some clothes I would wear the following day, although I knew I’d still have to come back to brush my teeth in the morning. But at least this would save me the trouble of walking in just boxers and a shirt to his room.  I didn’t bother to leave a note or anything for Armin. I figured the blondie would understand that I was somewhere with Marco.

When I got back to his room I noticed that there was a piece of paper hitched behind his door number. (Did I ever mention there was a small slot behind the door numbers for staff to leave pamphlets and shit?) I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the note. It was a message for his mates that said not to wake him up and that he’d see them later on the day.

After a short wait when I had knocked, he finally opened the door, looking fresh and clean with no reminisces of what we had just done not even twenty minutes before. This time he was sporting a really loose white t-shirt and boxer shorts instead of his usual (I think) boxer briefs. I guessed that was considered his pjs or some shit.

“Welcome back,” he greeted happily.

I couldn’t help sending him a cocky grin once I looked over him. Of course, the blush I got in return was fucking cute as hell. The room behind him seemed darker than what I remembered being and not wasting any time, he headed straight for his bed once I was inside with a closed door.

I followed him quickly towards the bed, which was surprisingly already opened and ready for me. (Seriously, he was a fucking angel or some shit. Why the hell was he even going this far just for me!? Holy shit.) I had realised then why the room was strangely dark, only to note that the bedside lights were the only things fucking on. If I wasn’t as fucking tired as I was, I would’ve thought this was romantic or some shit.

I made quick work of stepping out of my thongs and pulling down my boardies. All I got was a curious look from Marco but thankfully not any questions.

The bed was still slightly warm from our earlier activities and I couldn’t help but smile as I faintly smelt Marco on the pillow. He obviously didn’t use the side I had crawled into, but since he ruffled his head into both pillows earlier on, his musky scent has rubbed off onto it.

“Ahhh, so good to be in a double bed again,” I sighed, stretching out my legs as far as I could, until my left foot touched Marco’s.

Marco chuckled, turning over to his side before beaming me a tired smile, “There’s nothing wrong with single beds.”

“Not when you normally sleep on a double,” I retorted, turning onto my side too.

The way he stared at me with half-lidded eyes was almost too fucking cute. Hell, even I fucking blushed. The small smile that he still had on his lips only urged me to wiggle closer to him until our noses touched.

He giggled as I gently rubbed them, until I quietened him with a small peck on the lips. He returned the kiss even harder, slipping one of his arms out from the covers to cup my jaw.

“Tonight was great, aye,” he whispered against my lips. I knew it wasn’t a question but I replied anyway.

“Hell yeah,” I chuckled, giving him another kiss.

It wasn’t long until I pulled away when we both grew too tired to even fucking carry on with our gentle kisses. So, I settled to be a few centimetres away from him, watching and listening as he slowly drifted away into sleep. I couldn’t help but wrap my arm around his waist loosely too, giving his cheek a final small peck.

“G’night,” I whispered against his warm and freckled skin.

“Goodnight, Jean,” he mumbled sleepily.

 

-

 

The next morning was one hell of a good wake up. The first thing I saw on Friday (January 17th) was Marco’s sleeping face right next to me. The way his face was relaxed and his mouth was slightly opened made me smile the biggest fucking grin ever. The second thing was that the musky smell of Marco surrounded me completely which made me realise that I was in fucking heaven. The third was, obviously, that this was the best fucking wake up I had so far on this ship. Better yet, this day marked the halfway point of the ship and what better way to welcome it than laying next to the fucking guy I like.

I didn’t even know what fucking time it was and after a while of just watching Marco sleeping, I realised just how fucking light it was in the room. I had cranked my head over my shoulder as far as I could only to realise that the curtains from the balcony door had been slid open. Which meant.... fuck. Oh god. His cabin steward had... Oh lord.

I tried not to freak too much fucking out but obviously my movement had made Marco stir and he surprisingly pulled me closer in his sleep with the arm that was still wrapped around me loosely. I ended up removing my arm from his waist, only to hold his shoulder firmly to shake him.

“Marco,” I murmured.

He just groaned and pulled away, rolling onto his back to avoid the wake up I knew he was avoiding. After I chuckled for a few seconds, I shook him lightly again, which earned me a small peek through his eyelashes.

“G’day,” I smiled, hitching myself up onto my elbow.

“Good morning,” he mumbled, bringing his hands to his eyes to rub the sleep away. “I haven’t slept late in such a long time, aye? What time is it?”

I sat up fully then to look at the small digital clock that was on his nightstand beside him. It had read eleven thirty.

“Late enough that we’re probably going to miss breakfast,” I stated nonchalantly before falling back onto the bed with a huff.

“That’s okay, we can wait for lunch,” he suggested, turning his head towards me until our eyes met.

“Ace,” I replied, rolling closer to him until my face was right next to his. I gave him a quick peck on the lips before he broke the kiss and chuckled.

“Let’s get ready then. I’m sure my friends will want to know what’s up,” he spoke once we pulled apart.

I just grunted a reply, grudgingly getting out of the bed that was filled with Marco. I really would’ve liked to stay in there for a couple more fucking hours, but I somehow knew Marco wanted to get out and do stuff. I quickly pulled on my boardies again only to realise how fucking cold they were compared to the warm heat my legs were in a few seconds ago.

“I’ll be back in ten,” I stated before heading towards his door 

“Sounds good,” he called out after me.

 

-

 

I would say rest of the day went good too. At first I was worried that Marco would act weird over the fact that we passed a boundary that he told me I wasn’t allowed to pass until a long while of knowing each other. But surprisingly he was okay with it. If anything, he was more of a blushing fool than any fucking thing else.

I did see a small change in him, aside from the constant blushing. He seemed a lot more comfortable around me which was really fucking good. The way our hands would touch every now and then and the way he would lean into me more often during the day told me exactly that whatever boundary we crossed the previous night, did something hell good. I’m pretty sure he fucking agreed even though he was pretty nervous at first when I met him at his room again.

But you know, we were like fucking glued to each other the whole day. We had spotted Armin and Erwin at some point after our breakfast and decided to join them in whatever shit they had planned, which was not a lot.

For the better part of the day, we were mostly on Deck 14, relaxing and enjoying the already much fucking drier heat. I was seriously looking forward to our next port, Perth.

I was fucking disappointed though. Marco had said that he wasn’t able to join me or Armin while at port, but did promise me that we could spend the day together at the Albany port, which was the day after Perth’s porting.

Erwin had then chided in, suggesting that we do a small four person group travel of the area. He even fucking offered to rent a fucking car and drive us to locations. Blondie was pretty keen for the idea and as soon as he remembered that there was some kind of fucking forest with giant trees or some shit, even Marco agreed. I swear they both got even more fucking excited when Erwin mentioned some canoeing at an inlet that was nearby.

Other than that, Blondie and I planned to spend the day at the Zoo in Perth. Blondie had been to Perth before and told me that he’s seen most of Fremantle already (I suddenly remembered that yes, there was a summer when he took a trip with his grandpa to Perth) and that it’d be better if we just spent the day at the zoo instead. (Apparently he assumed I would find Fremantle boring?)

We agreed to meet Marco and his mates at some kind of park in the latter part of the day before having to head back to the ship. All I could think about was my poor fucking feet. It sounded like one hell of a day of fucking walking.

But strangely enough, I was okay with it. The fact that I would see Marco later on the day while at port made it fucking worth it and the fact that the following port we agreed to spend the day together made me even more fucking pumped.

If I had to put it bluntly, I was looking fucking forward to the next couple of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh! Oh my! Well done boys! Well done!!! Yay!  
> I hope the chapter was enjoyable! It was an.... intense one to write! Haha. I apologise if... it wasn’t good! It was an interesting experience to try and write it in first person!
> 
> Next chapter they’ll be porting Fremantle, Perth! 
> 
> Thank you to lesbianaradias and commander-arlert for being my beta-readers!
> 
>  
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> Pjs - pyjamas


	14. Perth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I've posted this chapter on the 17th April. But, I just wanted to make a quick announcement:  
> On the 13th of April, the cruise ship that this fanfic is set on/based on ported Sydney for the 35 days.   
> It ported Brisbane on the 15th and Port Douglas on the 18th! I can't believe the ship I've set this on is sailing and actually happening. I'll be going out to the harbour to see it port once it comes to my city on the 14th May!
> 
> Thank you once more to the lovely kudos, hits and bookmarks! Thank you so much for still sticking with this story! I'm terribly sorry if the updates are starting to slow down!
> 
> In this chapter they port Fremantle! I have been to Perth, but it was years ago. I’m pretty sure a lot of things have changed since then, so I apologise if there are any mistakes in landscapes and etc. (Especially Kings Park!)
> 
> Fremantle markets only open 9am, but for the sake of this story, let’s pretend they open at 7am. Also, the mentioned churro store is called San Churro. They’re a chocolate cafe that sells churros, desserts, hot chocolate, (and smoothies) chocolate candies, (like truffles and pralines) and the list goes on! It’s a chocolate lover’s heaven! 
> 
> Not much to say this time!  
> So, sit back, relax and enjoy the tiny tour of Perth!

_Day 18  
_ _In which Jean and Armin explores Perth Zoo._

* * *

Stepping back on land after being three whole fucking days on a ship was weird. One would think that it’d be good and that it’d actually feel like they’re back on land. But, guess fucking what. It wasn’t the case. Fuck, why would it be? And why the hell was I even surprised?

Leaving the ramps at the Fremantle port was both good and bad. It was good because I’d finally get fucking reception on my phone and bad because damn it all, I felt like I was still on a fucking boat. 

But then as soon as Armin and I stepped out of the small building on the wharf, I knew today was going to be one long, hot and tiring fucking Saturday (January 18th) with not even a single cloud in the sky.

“It’s only a short walk to the Fremantle Markets. We could always get an ice cream there,” Armin reassured as began our day in the early dry heat.

It was only seven thirty in the fucking morning and the sun was already high in the sky with promise that today was going to be one hell of a fucking hot day. Luckily blondie and I packed lots of water and applied sunblock anywhere our skin was exposed. And thankfully, I chose to wear my sneakers.  (Seriously, who the hell wears thongs to a zoo?)

I just grunted a reply as we walked across the parking lot and down a street, waiting for Armin to hand me at least one pamphlet so I could fan myself when I needed to. Luckily he had many of them today. Not only did he have a map, but he had bus times and a couple of other ones too. He gave me a zoo one, which was surprising.

Just like the blondie’s word, the walk to Fremantle Markets was short. Okay, like hell it felt fucking short. The streets were busy for such an hour of the morning. The main street we walked in was pretty much packed with people eating in cafes and I will admit, it kind of got me pumped and ready for the day.

At some point in the street we walked past this really fucking cool place that sold churros, chocolates and holy damn, everything fucking sweet and glorious. Even though we had breakfast like an hour ago at that time, I still dragged Armin in there to get at least three pieces each. The hardest decision was choosing between a caramel or chocolate dip sauces. So, Armin opted for the caramel while I took the chocolate and decided to share the two while we carried on our short walk to the markets.

“We should tell Sasha about that place,” Armin had said while he was on his final churro.

“You reckon?” I hummed, savouring the taste of my last one too. “Maybe once we reach the zoo. Connie would be pissed if he gets woken up early.”

Armin laughed at that and nodded. “I’ll send it to Sasha later then.”

Man, I did a great fucking deed for Connie. I could only hope that the gods up there would approve and not fuck up my day.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. Whenever someone mentions markets, I think about a giant grass area with stalls. (Flea markets or whatever?) Or maybe that’s just my take on it because of Brisbane or some shit. But, if Lombok had taught me anything, it certainly fucking was that markets also came in giant buildings with mini shop-like stalls.

Like, I can’t even describe this shit properly. The market was fucking huge and was split into two areas. One side was loaded with fucking fish, fruit, vegetables and a bunch of food while the other side were mostly stalls that ranged from clothes, accessories to some food places like a cafe.

Armin and I opted to start on the food side, since we didn’t really care much about it. Okay, I lie. We stopped by a small bakery stall and bought some food for later on. Once I spotted a stall next to it that sold cookies, Armin fucking freaked out with me. Needless to say, we bought nearly fucking ten cookies each.

The other side of the market was much more fucking busier than the food side. It was heading for eight and it was already packed. I figured it was because it was a Saturday and that the weather was fucking beaut.  

I aimlessly browsed a lot of the stalls with Armin. None of them really held my attention. Some of the jewellery stalls were interesting though, but hey, I wasn’t really all that interested in that kind of stuff. (I’m not much of an accessories kind of guy, okay?) Although, I was kind of curious when Armin suddenly shoved his heavy as camera into my hands so he could take a look at the leather bracelets.

The bracelet he had picked up was a braided black one that wrapped around his wrist two times until it got clasped together by this silver thing. I think it was like magnets or something.

“What do you think?” He beamed, holding out his right wrist. “It looks pretty nice, don’t you think?”

“It’s fine?” I shrugged my shoulders. I really didn’t care for this shit, seriously.

“Oh come on. It looks so cool! Why don’t you get one too?” Armin suggested, picking up another black one.

“Dude, you should know I don’t wear that crap,” I protested, taking a step away from him with his camera still in my hands.

“But you wear watches,” he retorted, eying the extra black one in his hand and then turning to me.

“Exactly.”

He held the bracelet against my arm and hummed. “Hm... Black isn’t really your colour... Let’s go for the brown one.” He completely fucking ignored me. God, he was becoming a blond-turd again.

“Armin, I’m not going to bu-”

“I’m buying it _for_ you, Jean,” he interrupted, holding up a dark brown one to my wrist. “Perfect.”

I furrowed my brows as he took one last look at the stall tables, “Why though?” I asked.

“I don’t know... to say thanks, I guess?” He replied, lightly tapping his index finger on his chin.

I eyed him suspiciously, “You want something out of it, don’t you?”

Leave it to fucking blondie to do this. It wasn’t anything new to me. We did this quite often over the years and while I shouldn’t be as suspicious I was; I just couldn’t help it. What the fuck could he possibly want out of me?

“No! Uh... no,” he blurted. The way he kept his eyes averted from me told me otherwise.

“Spill the beans, Armin,” I urged. It couldn’t be that bad?

“Okay, later though. But consider it a thank you for now,” he sighed, finally walking to the man at the end of the table.

“Isn’t it more like I’m the one who needs to thank _you_?” I mumbled. Which honestly was the fucking truth. Sure, the wingman thing he owed me for, but everything else he’s done so far on this fucking holiday meant he needed some trophy from me or some shit.

Armin just laughed, handing over what little cash he had left in his wallet. It seemed like that was the end of the conversation for now. There was no fucking way that I was going to drop it though. We had a fucking hour bus ride to sit through and I was sure as hell going to bring it up again.

“Is there an ATM around here, sir?” Armin asked once he got given his change.

The man (who was quite old, like really fucking old and prune looking) instantly nodded, giving Armin a small smile. “Hn, there should be one just outside.”

“Right, thank you,” Armin thanked, sending the man a fucking giant smile before leading me to the next stall.

We stopped by a sunnies stall along the way and decided to buy a new pair of sunnies each too. I really didn’t need a new pair; I just thought I’d get another one just in case. They had some pretty fucking cool ones and there was no way I could miss up on the deals.

I had bought an ice cream for both of us before we headed for an ATM machine outside the market building to withdraw some cash. We both made sure we had enough for a while (like for the next few ports and what not) and headed straight to the nearest bus stop in the busy street.

Thankfully the bus had arrived soon enough. Having to stand at a busy as bus stop in the fucking dry sun was a killer. The heat was already picking up and our ice cream cones were melting like at the speed of fucking lightning as we waited. 

I may have fucking wished for the dry heat earlier on the week, but I was somewhat regretting it by now. The shade under the bus stop was fucking taken by a whole bunch of people which meant Armin and I was forced to wait in the scorching sun. I was just fucking thankful for wearing a cap to soak up most of the sweat on my forehead. Nevertheless, I just had to suck it up; even if it made the motion I was still feeling even fucking worse.

 

-

 

“So, what favour do you need?” I asked eventually.

Armin and I had climbed onto a crowded bus that thankfully had fucking air con. If it hadn’t I would’ve been so fucking pissed.

The first half an hour of the bus ride we had been pretty quiet and sorted through our smartphones to check any new emails. (Well, Armin first started taking a million fucking photos but then became bored with it, I think?)

I couldn’t help but check Marco’s page on the latest social network app. I was just too fucking curious and I was sure as hell over the moon when I saw he had updated it and even uploaded a couple of photos that he had taken with his phone. (I was even in the background with some of them. Funnily enough he hadn’t even bothered to tag me.)

It seemed like they were exploring the Fremantle area for the day, or at least, that’s where he last checked in at. I was somewhat fucking jealous of him though. The amount of comments and likes he got within such a short amount of time was out of this fucking world. I seemed like he was quite well-known, not that it surprised me or anything. He’s such a happy fucking guy that I could see him getting along with every person he’s ever spoken to.

Eventually the internet grew boring after I had checked everything which led to me bringing up the topic Armin had tried to call off. We were, I would guess, not even twenty minutes away from the zoo.

“... It’s not exactly a favour, Jean,” Armin mumbled, growing a little red in the cheeks. He kept watching his phone and not bothering to look back up at me like he usually did.

“Okay...?” I made sure to have a curious sound to my voice.

“I just wanted to ask you... _if_... I could go alone with Erwin somewhere at a port,” he finally explained.

“Heh?” I quirked my brows, sending him a cocky smile. “Which one?”

His head suddenly shot up to look at me. “Adelaide.” He then gave me a small smile before adding on, “I mean, as long as you don’t mind or anything...”

“Nah, it’ll be all g-” I paused. _Wait._ Oh my fucking god. I... Holy fucking shit. “I nearly just said _all good.”_ I gasped.

“What?” Armin asked, looking so fucking confused.

“I just nearly said ‘all fucking good.’ Holy shit. The sheepshagger lingo is rubbing off on me,” I groaned, running a hand through my slightly damp hair. (Seriously, my cap and hair was fucking soaked. It was a relief to take it off once we got on the bus.)

Armin burst out in laughter at that. He was so fucking loud that people around us had even turned their heads to see what the fuck was going on. I just grumbled, looking straight ahead and tried to hide my face in my hands.

“Already!?” He wheezed, trying to calm down.

“God. I’ve barely even spent time with him and I’m already saying their shit,” I scoffed.

“Isn’t that a good thing? I’m sure Marco would like to hear,” he giggled.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, trying to fight off the blood that was racing to my fucking cheeks.

“What better way to tell him than to explore Adelaide with him.”

At that I finally looked back towards him, quirking my brow. “That’s if he’d want to spend it alone with me.”

“Oh come on, like he wouldn’t. Have you seen the way he even looks at you?”

This time it was my turn to laugh. Because, fuck yeah, I have. Once we had come clean and once I realised what a fucking blushing bloke he was, I began to be aware of what he was really like. He blushed more times than none around me and I swear, I had caught him one too many times staring too.

“It’s a win-win situation then. If he agrees, then we can be both happy in Adelaide,” Armin continued.

“What is there even to do in Adelaide, Armin? Like shit all, right?”

“Just ask him,” Armin shrugged.

“What, you’re not going to give me any ideas?” I gasped jokingly.

Armin just laughed and shook his head slowly. I realised then that it was the end of the conversation and opted to getting back to whatever shit was happening on my phone.

At some point Armin gave me the bracelet he bought and without even any warning, he started wrapping it around my right wrist. I didn’t even bother to fucking protest because well.... It actually looked pretty cool.

Luckily we got to the zoo quickly after that. And better yet, we got dropped off not even fucking three metres away. It was already just past nine which meant we still had like five fucking hours to waste in it.

Although, stepping outside of the bus was like entering a fucking dry sauna. But, I had to bare it. I was the one who even fucking agreed to this shit, so I had to suck it up. The only thing that made me more annoyed was the fact that I still had a long fucking day ahead of me filled with walking and seeing smelly as animals before I could finally meet with Marco.

 

-

 

Perth zoo turned out to be pretty damn fucking cool. Aside from the long walk, crowded areas and lazing animals, it was pretty nice. (Oh, and the flies. Yeah. Lots of fucking flies.)

Armin and I opted to tour the zoo in an anti-clockwise direction. (Blondie had taken two fucking pamphlets of the zoo before we even got walking. He did most of this planning, I swear.) We agreed to do a couple areas first then eat our lunch that we bought at the markets (the bread and cookies) on the main lawn area in the central part of the zoo and finally finish off the rest and end with the gift shop.

Really, I’m not even too sure what there is to say about the fucking zoo. I mean, it’s a zoo. What else is there to even really tell? I’m pretty fucking sure most zoos are the same no matter what city or country?

Most of the day I had a camera shoved into my hands without even a fucking ‘please.’ It was like I had become the blondie’s personal fucking photographer again. And he didn’t even have the fucking decency to take pictures of me.... Not that I wanted any or whatever.

For Perth, the first things you see in the anti-clockwise direction are the.... Um. I want to call these the miscellaneous animals. Things like lemurs, pelicans and tree kangaroos. (Ya’, fucking tree kangaroos. If you ask me, these things are far fucking cuter (shit I just called them cute) than the normal kangaroos you see hopping around.)

Next were the African animals, or as they call it “African Savannah.” This is the one that I both like and hate the most. I like it because lions, meerkats and god, all of the animals, are fucking cool and great. But the smell. Oh god. The fucking smell. Like especially around the rhinos and giraffes. The smell is so fucking awful that it’s almost gag-worthy. And the worst part was the increase of fucking flies. With heat, there are always flies. Add fucking smelly animals, then you get swarms of fucking flies.

We had stayed much too long at the meerkat area though. Armin, believe it or not, is a huge fucking meerkat lover. I don’t know whether it’s because they have a striking resemblance or because... yeah, nah.... I think I’ll just leave it at fucking that.

When I told him about it, he had the fucking nerve to shoot back that I looked more like a meerkat than anything else. My only protest was that my ash-brown hair wasn’t as fucking light as theirs.

Armin had fucking laughed at that.

Next came the South American birds, which honestly, wasn’t that spectacular. I was just so fucking jealous of them because here I was, sweating my fucking ass off in the heat while they had fucking sprinklers on top of their cages. What the fuck was even up with that? (I won’t lie; I was fucking keen to just run in those cages, even if it meant potentially getting my eyes picked out.)

The small building for the nocturnal animals was the biggest relief. It was air conned and fucking glorious. Of course, we could see jack fucking shit since outside had been so fucking bright in comparison. But, I’m pretty sure we had at least spotted one bat flying around in its enclosure.

Before we headed into the “Asian Rainforest” (seriously, who names these sections?) we stopped by the primates area. This honestly is always the greatest fucking thing to see, especially when they’re actually active and not lazing their asses in the sun. (You kind of get that a lot. Aus is so fucking hot that all they do is laze around in the summer time.)

Armin went on a fucking spazz as soon as he found the ‘cotton-top’ or whatever monkeys. And when I mean spazz, I mean the ultimate fucking spazz where his camera ‘beeps’ even made people around us give him the stink eye. He was putting Hanji’s obsession with fishes to fucking shame.

It was during then when I had spotted _them_. The information slate said they were called ‘Bolivian squirrel’ monkeys, but that meant nothing. Like fuck it did. All that mattered was, holy fucking shit, they looked like Connie.

When I had called over Armin to tell him my thoughts, he had just laughed and took a million photos until he eventually agreed that, yes, the greyer ones did resemble Connie. At least we could agree on that.

Next was the “Asian Rainforest”, as mentioned earlier. As much as I love elephants, alligators and orang-utans (the one in the enclosure had a giant fucking ice block and holy damn, I was so fucking thirsty and jealous) as the next bloke, I think the best fucking part of the whole section were the tigers and otters.

Like, who the hell would say tigers weren’t fucking badass!? Too bad they all just fucking laid there, sleeping in the fucking sun. At least the otters were much more entertaining. They were fucking swimming and everything. I got another wave of jealousy at that and wished I could get swim in the clear waters.

Instead of heading onwards, we had to go back through the rainforest section and down another path (and past a small temple, which Armin did fucking freak out about) until we got to the main lawn.

We were lucky enough to find an empty picnic table under some trees and pretty much fucking ran there before anyone else spotted it.

It was already half past eleven by then and I was fucking starving. Only after I emptied my backpack with the bread and cookies did I remember that I only had water to wash down my lunch. It was the push I needed to head across the lawn and into a cafe to buy some soft drinks for Armin and me. And god, he was a fucking happy little blond-turd when I returned with his favourite.   

“They’re not as extensive as our one, are they?” Armin had spoken after a couple of bites of his ham sandwich.

“Hah?”

“They don’t have water animals like the Sydney one. It says they do have penguins, but no seals or anything like ours,” Armin clarified.

“Ahh, I see,” I replied lazily.

“I think we’ll be done in two hours,” he continued, just before his phone went off.

I left him to chat to whoever had phoned him and enjoyed the small breeze that went past. The shade was fucking heaven compared to the sweltering and melt-worthy heat. The cicadas were going fucking mental above us in the tree and I could only pray none of them decided to land on me or on my bread.

“What time are we meeting Marco?” Armin distracted me. He held his phone a few centimetres away from his mouth.

“Two-thirty this arvo, I think?”

Armin repeated that to whoever he was talking to (Erwin, I would assume) and then suddenly he was done.

“Eren and Mikasa are going to meet us at the viewpoint too,” Armin explained.

“Fuck that. And you agreed?” I scoffed, this time taking an angry bite.

“Jean,” Armin hissed. “Mikasa said they got separated from Sasha and Connie at the markets and that they were heading for the CBD.”

I felt like the word ‘separated’ was a complete fucking lie. Knowing how much Sasha had probably freaked out once Armin had texted her when we were in the bus, made me pretty much aware that they just wanted a reason to go somewhere else. But why did it have to be with fucking Armin and me? Why couldn’t they just go somewhere by themselves?

“Fiiiine,” I groaned, finishing off my sandwich. Armin nodded with a smile and carried on eating away.

Once we were done, we headed straight for the ‘Australian Bushwalk’ section which was surprisingly really fucking awesome. Most of this shit wasn’t new to me or Armin, but once we reached the areas with the kangaroos, we both (yes, me fucking included) freaked out. And when I mean freaked out, I mean fucking leapt for joy.

 

Most of the Australian section is a long path with wooden fences, but the kangaroo area only has a single thread of rope. And do you dipshits know what that means? It fucking means the kangaroos can hop onto the path and greet fucking visitors! Hell yeah!

There was a small kangaroo that had crossed our path, which meant a hell lot of fucking commotion from people around. I had never in my fucking life petted a kangaroo and now I can finally fucking say that I have, even if it was just a small one. (If it stood up on its hind legs, it would have reached just above my knees.)

I took a couple of pictures of Armin with it and then finally he offered to take a few of me. (I was kneeling on my knees and posing next to it like a fucking pro.) Everything was going so fucking well. It even stopped sniffing the ground to sniff my hand (it was a great fucking shot, by the way) but of course, I had fucking bad luck. I really should have seen this fucking coming.

It was like bad luck always fucking finds me or some shit. There was escape, even when I do _good_ fucking deeds.

Out of fucking nowhere a bunch of sprogs (seriously, where the fuck were their parents?) had ran my way, scaring the living fucking daylights out of the poor kangaroo.

It got so fucking scared that it kicked its hind legs in my direction.

Luckily. Like fucking luckily, I only got the short deal of the kick. But the poor kid that came to stand beside me at some point before the scene got the worst end.

It was like it all happened in slow fucking motion. Like I could recall every fucking second of it.

He fucking flew (like fucking leaped, I don’t even know. He just flew, okay!) to his ass as soon as the kangaroo kicked and cried like fucking baby. Hell I couldn’t blame him. The small part it had touched on my thigh had fucking hurt. I could only imagine what the sprog must have felt like with a full on kick to the stomach.

Armin didn’t care much for me, but rather helped up the small kid that was crying. He even came down to his own knees to try and calm the kid. All the other sprogs decided to run after the hopping kangaroo, so luckily his parents came quickly to the rescue.

They gave Armin and me apologies and their thanks before pulling the kid somewhere else. And only fucking then did Armin have the cheek to look at me. Of course, when our eyes finally met, we both fucking laughed instantly.

I think the scene of a kid fucking leaping back from a kangaroo kick would be forever fucking engraved in my brain.

“He fucking flew!” I barked. Armin just nodded, holding his stomach as he laughed with me.

Only when we both calmed down, did he pop the question, “Are you okay?”

I just nodded, standing up from my knees and hitched up my denim shorts pant leg. There was a giant red circle on my thigh, but it didn’t really fucking matter. The pulsing pain was already subsiding, so it didn’t really bother me.

“It’s fine,” I grunted, before I shook off the dirt from my knees. I tried to pat as much dirt off my denim shorts and white shirt, but it seemed it was going to stay there until they get a wash the following day. Armin just hummed, brushed off his own knees when he stood too and carried on walking through the area.

The final part was kind of the ‘wetlands’ area of the Australian Bushwalk. It had animals and reptiles like crocodiles, frogs, penguins and what not. It was all stuff that both Armin and I had seen way too many fucking times before, so we passed it pretty quickly.

I was just fucking disappointed in the fact that I couldn’t hold a snake. After the shit-stain and Mikasa had held one in Darwin, I was so fucking keen to hold one too. But, Perth Zoo had to be the biggest fucking drag and not offer such a thing.

Armin had just patted my shoulder and told me that next time we got the chance to go to the Sydney Zoo, we could do it. I made bloody fucking sure he held that promise.

 

-

 

After we had finished walking around the zoo, we made one last stop at the toilets and the gift shop where Armin went on a shopping frenzy. I figured there wouldn’t be time for him to buy souvenirs anywhere else, so I agreed to linger there until we knew the bus would arrive within fifteen minutes.

Our next stop was Kings Park, where we’d meet Marco and his mates. It was a fucking half an hour drive away and even a transfer of busses, but hell, I was just so fucking keen to see him that it didn’t even bother me that much.

Kings Park is this massive park and botanical garden (oh god, more gardens) in Perth. It overlooked all of the skyscrapers (and waterfront) and also the Swan River that ran through Perth. It was like the one and only fucking place in central Perth that had green grass and great views. (Did I mention that Perth was fucking dry as hell? Or was the dry heat statements enough for all of you?)

Armin and I were so fucking unlucky that we got dropped off by one of the entrances and were left alone to find a way to the main viewpoint of this giant fucking park.

Luckily (no, not even fucking luckily) it was just one giant long uphill road. There were trees on either side of the road and damn, the closer we got, the better the trees started to look. Eventually (seriously it took us such a long as fucking time) we found a giant as building and then the green grass.

The main viewing area of Kings Park had a pretty cool fountain and then a memorial tower... statue... kind of fucking thing... uh... whatever-it-was. Just behind the tower was a walkway where you could stand and watch the view of the city. Surrounding the fountain and statue, there was a giant green grass area with palm trees that also looked over at the view.

Kings Park was surprisingly busy (then again, it was a fucking Saturday with blue skies) that we struggled to find Marco and his mates.  Actually, it was Reiner who was the first to spot us. They were sitting under one of the palm trees in the area on what seemed to be beach towels from the cruise.

“Yo! Aussies!” He yelled, waving us over.

I’m pretty sure the surrounding people must have looked too, (I mean who the fuck wouldn’t with a sheepshagger calling out ‘Aussies’?) but we just nodded and walked on towards them.

“G’day sheepshaggers,” I teased.

“G’day everyone,” Armin beamed. I sighed in relief as we finally stood under the shade. (I was sweating my fucking ass off after having to walk up that giant fucking hill.) My eyes immediately fell on Marco who was sitting on a beach towel and holding onto some orange coloured soft drink.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted, giving me a giant fucking smile. Oh fucking lord. I was just so fucking happy that he was wearing a normal looking cap and not that awful cork hat from Broome. Surprisingly he wasn’t even in his usual polo shirt but rather just a plain black shirt. (Fuck. A black shirt!? Who the hell even does that with such heat!?)

I averted my eyes after a while and found Bertl (he had given me a small timid smile when he realised I was looking. I figured by now that it was just in his nature to sweat a lot and look awkward) and Annie sitting on towels (well, Annie was more like lying on the towel. I could have sworn she was fucking asleep) next to Marco while Reiner was the only one who was standing.

I saw Reiner eying me curiously before asking, “What happened to your shorts, bro?”

I knew it. I fucking knew it. Even Marco gave me quick scan before tilting his head curiously too. I just sighed again and walked towards Marco’s left side. It felt so fucking great to finally take off my heavy as fucking backpack.

“I got kicked by a kangaroo,” I finally explained once I dropped my bag on the ground.

Reiner’s laugh didn’t even fucking startle me and before I knew it, I heard Marco’s chuckles in the air too.

“It wasn’t even the funniest part,” I continued. “There was this kid who was standing next to me and as soon as the kangaroo kicked, he went fucking flying to his ass.”

Reiner and Marco erupted in laughter again, even Armin, Bertl and I joined in. Our laughter was short lived when we were interrupted by none other than the shit-stain.

“There they are! G’day Kiwis!” Eren called over.

“Eren! Mikasa!” Armin yelled back, waving frantically at them. (They looked almost as fucking worn out as I did which led me to believe they climbed the giant fucking hill too.)

I just gave a light nod before taking a seat on the grass next to Marco.

“How’s your day going, bro?” Reiner asked. My head shot up at that but then I instantly realised that he was asking the shit-stain and not me.

“Ace! It’s so hot,” he replied.

“I know aye. We’re far from used to this kind of heat,” Reiner groaned, looking over to Marco and I. “What did you say it was again?”

“Thirty-nine degrees,” Marco informed. Shit. I hadn’t realised it was that fucking hot. I mean, it wasn’t as hot as Perth normally got... but...

“For real?” I countered loudly, so that the other two could hear too.

Before Reiner could even comment on that, Armin interjected and tugged at the shit-stain’s arm, “Mikasa and I are going to take pictures. Want to come?”

Eren just eyed Reiner before they both shrugged and walked away with them. Bertl had quickly jumped up with his own camera before following the four.

“You didn’t want to join them?” I asked once I turned to face Marco.

“Nah, all good. I’ve already got some photos,” he replied, sending me a small smile.

I was somewhat disappointed that he was wearing his sunnies. I don’t want to sound like a fucking sap, but I loved looking at his eyes and all his freckles. The pair of sunnies he had on weren’t the sleek and thin type. Rather, they covered up a good portion of his cheeks. (Dear god, I was barely even looking at him and he was already fucking blushing.)

“Alright then,” I finished, finally averting my eyes away from him.

I fixed my backpack to a good position for my head and then fell back with closed eyes onto the surprisingly soft grass. The walk up the park was one hell of a climb and my legs were fucking feeling it. Hell, the amount of walking I did today was already tiring me the fuck out.

“Was the zoo fun?” He asked quietly.

My eyes open behind my sunnies and I gave him a small smile when I noticed what position he was in. He was leaning back on his left hand while watching me. The shy smile that tugged on his lips was so fucking cute that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah. Fucking tiring as always though.”

“True. Zoo’s tend to do that, aye?” He nodded.

“What did you get up to?”

He hummed and then faced the front so he could lean back on both wrists. “We mostly explored Fremantle. We went to the maritime museum, the prison, a beach and a couple of other places.”

“Sounds tiring too,” I groaned, lifting my right hand to swat away some pesky flies that were flying around my face.

Marco had chuckled at my reply but almost instantly he stopped and quickly asked, “Did you go to the Fremantle Markets by any chance?”

“Hah? Yeah, how come?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

This time he laughed, which made me cock my head to the side. What the fuck was he even laughing about anyway?

“Great minds think alike,” he said, taking hold of my right wrist with his hand.

It took me a couple of seconds to see what he meant. _Oh._ Oh fuck. So, it turns out that he bought a fucking bracelet too. A fucking dark brown one as well. (Seriously, why dark brown? Black would suit him so much fucking better.)

I didn’t want to tell him that it wasn’t _my_ idea, so I just replied with a nonchalant, “Cool.”

Of course, I couldn’t stop the blush that grew on my cheeks. The fact that we had something that was the same was enough to make my stomach twirl. It was something that would remind me of him long after the holiday. (Not that I was really thinking about it at the time or anything.)  

So, I just held out my palm in the air and without even fucking saying anything, he threaded his fingers through mine.  It didn’t last long before my arm grew tired. He eventually untangled his clammy fingers and allowed me to rest my hand on my stomach again.

We went strangely quiet after that. But, it was comfortable. Like, really fucking comfortable. I was so fucking close to even falling asleep because it was _that_ comfortable. (If only my backpack was fucking softer.)

The quietness allowed me to close my eyes and listen out to things in the distance. The cicadas in the palm trees, (and a stray raven crying) the people in the distance, the cars driving past and Annie’s gentle breathing that confirmed that she was asleep next to Marco.

It was all so fucking great and spelt out ‘the best arvo in a park’, ever. At some point Marco started to run his fingers lazily over my hand that still rested on stomach. I couldn’t quite figure out if he was bored or if he was enjoying the comfortable silence too. I knew I should have asked Marco if he wanted to walk around the gardens, but I was just too fucking tired and hot.

It was when his fingers trailed up my arm and to my elbow that I swallowed before speaking.

“Hey... Marco.”

He just hummed, his fingers still gliding over my arm, causing me to almost have fucking goose bumps, although I was sweating my ass off.

“Come down here for a sec,” I whispered. The way his fingers stopped running along my arm made me peek through my lids. He looked somewhat confused (and why the hell was he even turning his face to look around?) and I could have fucking sworn he had a blush going on. But nevertheless, he slowly leaned down towards me once he finished scanning the area.

Our noses touched for a split second before I craned my head up until our lips joined in an awkward angle. (I’m amazed our caps didn’t ruin this fucking moment.) The kiss was soft and timid and not nearly as long as I hoped it to be before he pulled back a little. I wanted to protest but before I could even open my lips, his was on mine again. I realised then that he just changed his position slightly and then eased downwards so I could rest my head again on the backpack.

This kiss was still a little timid on his part, so I moved my left hand to the back of his head to deepen the kiss. I knew we couldn’t stay like this for too long, so I tried my best to enjoy it as much as possible before the others would return.

My tongue had moved on its own because before even I fucking knew it, my mouth slightly opened as I licked across his slightly chapped lips. He opened his mouth a bit for me to slide my tongue in, licking over his. I swallowed the gasp he breathed, continuing to lick over his tongue and the roof of his mouth. His mouth was warm and wet and faintly tasted like the orange Fanta he had earlier in his hand. But even this slow and sensual kiss didn’t last long enough.

He pulled away before anyone would really take note. This time he was definitely red and even I fucking was. He gave me one last lingering peck before going back to leaning on his left hand.

I watched him gazing at the view for a while before closing my eyes again, licking my lips to savour the taste he left. It’s a good fucking thing that our kiss hadn’t last any longer because before I even knew it, someone was shouting.

And that someone was Reiner. God. Fucking. Damn it!

“Oi! Love birds!”

I groaned under my breath and covered my sunnies with an arm. I’m pretty sure I heard Marco squeak beside me too.

“You do realise this is a public area, yeah?” He continued. The shit-stain’s laughter that followed confirmed that they all fucking saw it. _Shit_.

“Sh-shut up,” Marco groaned. I looked towards him to realise that he had pulled his knees to his chest and was hiding his face in his hands.

I sat up at that and noticed that they all came back. Even Armin was looking at me with his eyebrows high up on his forehead. God, he didn’t have to look so fucking amused. It’s not like I ever gave him that look when he and Erwin were especially close.

“We decided to walk through the gardens for the next forty minutes. That way we’ll be closer to the bus stop,” blondie explained, holding out a hand for me to use.

Once I got on to my feet, I tried to pat as much grass off my back as I could and helped Marco up too. All the while Reiner was shaking Annie awake.

“Yo, Annie. Get yo’ ass up,” he teased. I couldn’t help but snort as he teased the poor girl. It looked like she was having one hell of a good sleep.

She just mumbled and gave him a slap on his arm. And dear god, did it look fucking painful. The wince Reiner had written all over his face was fucking hilarious. Serves him right.

“God, Annie. You’ve slept for like what, an hour? You even slept through Marco making out next to you.”

“Reiner!” Marco and Bertl hissed at the same time. (Good on Bertl for standing on Marco’s side.)

I fucking laughed though when Marco got his towel off the grass and shook the loose grass onto the blond bloke, which earned him a snort from Reiner. All the while, the blush Marco had all over his face was fucking adorable though.

 

-

 

As planned, we walked through the gardens. (Well more like the park.) Honestly, there wasn’t much going on. I think the only cool fucking thing was this giant fountain we found along the way. The amount of water it was shooting up was so fucking cool that I was so keen to just run in the pond and soak it up.

But instead, I was dragged along to do more fucking walking on a long winding path.

Marco and I constantly stuck beside each other while Armin was on the other side of me. I was constantly being squashed between the two blokes with cameras in their hands. But, I didn’t bother saying anything. Instead, I just kept silently praying that I wouldn’t be the one to take pictures of them any time soon.

Once we had reached the other side of the park, we caught a short and quick bus ride to the nearest train station. Armin had told us that a train would drop us off right by the ship and it would take half the amount of time.

So around four in the arvo, we caught one hell of a busy fucking train. I opted to sit next to Marco (who took the window seat) since Armin mentioned that he was going to sit with Eren. He gave me a thumbs up just to tell me that it was okay and said he needed to catch up with the shit-stain.

Of course, it didn’t really mean anything great. Marco, just like fucking Armin, was busy with his camera for a good long while before growing bored and turning his attention to his phone. I was mostly just on my phone too, not really bothered by the passing scenery. It was mostly just city landscape anyway.

When I saw Marco was looking at his phone in the corner of my eye, I couldn’t help but smirk and move my free hand to his thigh. The small breath he took was enough for me to smile and before I knew it, his hand was on top of mine.   

It felt so fucking ace to spend time with him again and knowing that the following day we’d be together all day long was like the icing on a fucking cake.

The train ride was thankfully not that slow in the end. We had somehow made it back to the ship half past four and slowly walked our way back up on it. Surprisingly the lines weren’t as long as I expected them to be, so it made it all the better.

We hung around on an extremely fucking busy Deck 14 for a while and eventually the ship ported around five. This was actually the second time ever that I really cared about porting at a location. I can only guess that it was because I was in such a happy mood with Marco around. Or it may have been the fucking heat finally getting to me.

Either way, we all stayed and hanged around until it was six. Reiner and Bertl were the first to split. Reiner said something about catching a snooze before eight. Annie and Marco excused themselves too, but not before Marco told me he’d see me after dinner. (Oh thank fucking god for that!)

So the rest of us agreed to head back to our cabin for a short power nap too. (Except for Armin. He told me while we were walking down the stairs that he was going to find Erwin.) Eren and I had found Connie and Sasha randomly in the cabin.

I was just so fucking happy to see Sasha because she did some shopping again. Hell yeah! As like Darwin, she had asked if we had a list of things we wanted. This time I made sure to ask her for some condoms and silicone lube. (I even had to double check that she wrote the right shit down.)

I mean... I knew that I wouldn’t really get _that_ far with Marco anytime soon.... but it was best to be prepared, right? We already fucking jerked each other off the other day, so there was a chance that things could escalate quickly before either of us even knew it.

I made sure to place the items in my underwear draw for safe keeping. And I even glared at the shit-stain to make sure he knew that he wasn’t allowed to touch my shit.

Rest of the evening went as it always did, really. By now things were becoming a routine. We’d shower, get dressed. (And this time we remembered to throw all our clothes into a pile for Gunther to wash the following day.) Have dinner at eight and then join with Marco’s group afterwards.

After dinner we decided to watch a movie (big surprise. It was fucking Titanic. Oh, the fucking irony) that was playing at the theatre. Everyone was pretty fucking tired from the heat and long day, so none of us was in the mood for partying or drinking. (This is fucking bullshit. It turns out they all did in the end.)

In fact, I was so fucking tired that at some point I had fallen asleep. (I’m pretty sure it was after Jack and Rose started dancing with the third class passengers.) By the time I was shaken awake, the credits were rolling and people were leaving.

Surprisingly enough I found myself leaning against Marco who was oddly red as a fucking tomato. (I think Reiner who was sitting next to him had teased him or some shit.) I had leaned against him for just a short while longer, taking in the smell of his cologne that he obviously had sprayed near his neck. Sighing, I pulled away only to find him gazing at me in a face I didn’t quite understand. (Seriously though, bless him for putting up with my tired fucking ass.)

Erwin double checked with Armin, Marco and I about what time we’d meet and what we’d do for the day. Apparently we were on a strict time limit to make it work. But really, I just didn’t even fucking care at that point. I just needed a soft bed and sleep.

I was the first one to say goodnight, even though it was like fucking one in the morning. Marco said his goodbyes too and quickly followed me closely.

I thought that we were going to split once we reached the hallway; instead he followed me again all the way to my cabin. I gave him a smug grin and the shy smile he sent me back made me realise that he was keen, just as fucking I was, for a goodnight make out. (Why the hell else would he have followed me?)

I instantly headed for my bed (the covers were opened, thanks to Gunther) only to flop down on my stomach once my shoes were toed off. He seemed to linger around the room before he quietly spoke.

“I’m surprised your cabin steward doesn’t clean your room.”

I just laughed into the pillow, before turning my head. “I think he’s too scared to.”

He chuckled quietly, taking a seat on my small single bed. He even had to fucking slouch or else he would’ve hit his head against the top bunk.

I ended up turning around onto my back and sat up. My hands instantly reached for his back which made him turn his torso towards me until our eyes met.

Nothing else needed to be said. Our lips met and before I knew it, we were sharing a gentle kiss. There was no hunger behind it, but rather just a slow and a little sloppy one. I could tell he was just as tired as I was, so I slowly moved back down, pulling him along with me.

Eventually he shifted to lay on the small bed with me. On our sides with our knees touching, our fingers intertwined at our crotches and our heads resting on the pillow as we continued to kiss until we were out of breath and too tired to even continue.

Laying there with him on top of my bed was exactly what I needed. And it even got better when he had moved his head lower towards my shoulder and chest. His short fruity smelling hair tickled my nose and I couldn’t help chuckle and wrap my arms tightly around his waist as we laid there peacefully with the gentle rocking motion of the boat.

I don’t even fucking know what time it was, but Armin was the one to wake me up. He had closed the door quite loudly which startled me awake.

I had shot up so fucking fast that I even banged my head on the bunk bed above me. Marco had just stirred beside me until his eyes fluttered open with confusion written all over his face.

“Sorry,” Armin muttered. I could tell by the way he was walking towards his bed that he wasn’t exactly sober as he should have been. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Marco sat up after he rubbed his eyes while I asked in a daze, “Man... what is the time even?”

“Just after three. The others are still up there,” blondie replied, undoing the buttons on his shirt.

“I... I should get going,” Marco murmured, rolling off the bed and onto his feet. He even fucking stumbled, but thankfully Armin caught him before he fell back. (I’ve done that too. Getting up in such a small fucking cabin with so many beds was weird at first.)

I just chuckled after I stood and followed him out the door. I wanted to be a good fucking... boyfriend? Ship fling? No... I don’t know what we were at that point. And being half asleep, I don’t exactly know why I was thinking about it. But anyway, I had walked him to the door and gave him a long kiss goodnight until he broke it and told me that he was ‘stoked’ about tomorrow and to have a good sleep.

As soon as I got back into the cabin, I saw that Armin was already in bed and by the looks of it; he was seconds away from falling asleep. I pulled all my clothes off and chucked them into our giant fucking pile. I made sure to check the alarm before sliding into my bed. 

The bed was still warm and it faintly smelt of Marco’s cologne. I couldn’t help but dig my nose even further into the pillow, smelling more of him. It reminded me of the night I had spent in his bed. It made me even more eager to spend yet another night with him. But, I knew that would be a far stretch. He seemed almost too fucking serious about his early as morning exercise. (Plus, I didn’t know if he wanted me in his pants again.)

So, I enjoyed what I had for that moment. And surprisingly enough, sleep found me easily again, even though I was excited (just like Marco) for the following day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a very exciting or big chapter, I apologise. Next chapter will have a lot more Marco and Jean action, I promise!
> 
> Thank you to the lovely lesbianaradias and commander-arlert for being my beta-readers! Everyone, please send them some love on Tumblr!
> 
> Tidbits:
> 
> ATM Machine – a machine where you withdraw cash...?  
> Cotton-top monkey – this white and brownesh-blackesh SUPER fluffy monkey! It’s absolutely adorable  
> Soft drink – soda, pop, fizzy drink  
> CBD – central business district aka, the heart of the city (or the middle)  
> Sprog – kids, offsprings  
> Transfer bus – you get off one bus and then hop onto another  
> 39 degree Celsius – about 102 Fahrenheit  
> Raven – an Australian black crow. You can hear it often in cities  
> Fanta – a soft drink range  
> Stoked - excited


End file.
